By Sam Diaz and Krystal Eldridge
This year, we celebrate 50 years of Oregon’s landmark land use legislation, Senate Bills 100 and 101. Governor Tom McCall signed these laws into effect thanks to thousands of Oregonians across the state advocating for strong towns and protection of our farms, forests, and watersheds. State legislators and their staff played a key role in turning this vision into reality.
Fifty years later, state lawmakers still receive thousands of emails and calls each session to help them decide on how they vote for every piece of state legislation. While the majority of land use decisions happen at the local level, state lawmakers play a critical role in strengthening, weakening, or completely undoing Oregon’s land use legislation.
In the 2023 legislative session, a few notable lawmakers voted to protect a cornerstone feature of our land use system: our urban growth boundaries. House Bill 3414’s dash-23 amendment proposed an automatic expansion of existing urban growth boundaries with no guarantee for the kinds of housing Oregonians need or requirement to build in places that give Oregonians a high quality of life and opportunity. The dash-23 amendment would have resulted in more vacant land and buildings inside our existing cities and towns, encouraged plans for runaway upscale homes on large lots, sparked visions of more half-vacant strip malls and outlet centers, and would have taken away the certainty that a strong land use system offers all of us.
The 2024 legislative short session starts February 5 and lasts into early March. We know that legislators who voted to protect Oregon’s land use system need to hear that protecting our urban growth boundaries matters. They need your support now and into the next session. We’re on high alert as we create and advocate for a way to directly address our housing crisis without sacrificing our farms, forests, and watersheds or fall short of our carbon pollution goals.
Join us in debunking the false promise that more soil is the missing factor in solving our housing crisis. We have land inside our cities and towns waiting for investment. We need roads, utilities, and other public services. Let your legislators know that you support smart infrastructure investments, not unwarranted UGB expansions, to help them know how to vote in the new year.
Use our form to thank your legislators
Senators who voted to protect urban growth boundaries
Senator Wlnsvey Campos, Senator Michael Dembrow, Senator Sara Gelser Blouin, Senator Jeff Golden, Senator Chris Gorsek, Senator James I. Manning Jr., Senator Deb Patterson, Senator Floyd Prozanski, Senator Kathleen Taylor, Senator Aaron Woods
Representatives who voted to protect urban growth boundaries
Representative Tom Andersen, Representative Shelly Boshart Davis, Representative Ben Bowman, Representative Farrah Chaichi, Representative Mark Gamba, Representative Dacia Grayber, Representative Annessa Hartman, Representative Ken Helm, Representative Paul Holvey, Representative Zach Hudson, Representative Susan McLain, Representative Travis Nelson, Representative Daniel Nguyen, Representative Rob Nosse, Representative Courtney Neron, Representative Khanh Pham, Representative Lisa Reynolds, Representative Ricki Ruiz, Representative Tawna D. Sanchez, Representative Nathan Sosa, Representative Jules Walters