Guest opinion by Brian Hines, Statesman Journal, November 4, 2007

There are many reasons to vote for Measure 49. Walk into your kitchen and you'll see one of the most important: Food.

We Oregonians are fortunate to live in a state that produces some of the healthiest, safest and best-tasting food on the planet. (Like Oregon strawberries, which beat the California variety hands down.)

But we're at risk of having our finest agricultural land asphalted over. Not someday — now. A study has found that 518,128 acres of Measure 37 subdivisions and other development have been proposed on farmland. These claims will be limited, not eliminated, by Measure 49.

This is why the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation supports Measure 49, along with 14 other major farm organizations in Oregon. They recognize that if the flaws of Measure 37 aren't fixed, locally grown crops are going to be a thing of the past. Willamette Valley farms should be sprouting food, not subdivisions.

Recently I got a mailing from a group called the Oregon Family Farm Association. It urged a no vote on Measure 49. I checked into the group and found that it has nothing to do with families. Or farms. It's just a front for a few well-heeled donors who want to keep the Measure 37 gravy train rolling for a few at the expense of the many — you and me.

Drive five miles south on Liberty Road past Kuebler. On the left you'll see rolling high-value farmland called the Twin Hills, bisected by some road construction that the Measure 37 claimant carried out without a permit. But that isn't the ugliest thing about this 42-home proposed subdivision.

On the right side of Liberty you'll pass homes whose wells already have had to be deepened or replaced. That's because the state Water Resources Department has designated this area as groundwater limited. Meaning, there isn't much water here.

Forty of our neighbors have formed a Keep Our Water Safe committee. We figure that we have property rights, too. Like the right to not have our wells go dry. A legitimate fear because an independent water expert hired by Marion County concluded there isn't evidence of enough water for both the Measure 37 subdivision and existing homes.

That should have stopped the subdivision. But two members of the board of commissioners had another idea. They approved the 42 homes and wells anyway, ignoring the county's own groundwater ordinance. Crazy. This is what Measure 37 has brought us — political shenanigans usurping the property rights of neighbors.

Measure 49 will restore fairness to Oregon's land-use laws. It will let Measure 37 claimants have three homes on high-value farmland, forestland and groundwater-limited land (10 homes otherwise). The rest of their property still can be used for other purposes. The Liberty Road acreage is perfect for a multi-million-dollar vineyard.

Farmers can keep on raising crops. Timber companies can keep on growing trees. People with wells can keep on turning their tap and have water come out.

Vote yes on 49.

Brian Hines of Salem is a blogger, writer and land-use activist. He can be reached at brianhines@att.net.