2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes technology terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

Golf courses use lots of water, herbicide and have nitrogen runoff. They are used to prove that the development is a "resort" when it is, in actuality, a subdivision which violates the letter and spirit of the land use laws. Psydneyh

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
view in context

Population growth has already diminished quality of life in Oregon. I have lived in Oregon 46 years and think that the land use program has had limited success. When you take an infinite number of bites out of limited resource, eventually you have nothing. I don't think we should passively accept population growth. Native born Americans have achieved replacement rate and the greater part of increase is from foreign born. It is even greater than census figures show, because the American-born children of foreign born parents are not counted, but would not be here if their parents were not here. We are enduring higher rates of immigration now than ever in our history. We can't do much about the legal immigrants, because that is controlled by national policy (although we could press our representatives to take a different stand than they do)We can, however, reduce the illegal immigrant numbers. Oregon is a "sanctuary" state, and Portland, Salem, and Marion County are "sanctuaries" under state law. This law should be repealed and local law enforcers should be permitted to cooperate with federal agents. We could drive the illegals out as Arizona has done. This would make a significant reduction in the number of people that have to be accommodated and especially, people that have a high birth rate.

Many policies encourage population increase. We need to reconsider tax breaks for businesses to locate here. Do they bring their own people? Do they attract more people? Do they get to relocate again after damaging us? Who pays for the infrastructure they require?

A study done at Portland State University just a few years ago showed that each new home cost existing residents $34,000 in infrastructure costs. Existing residents subsidize growth, growth which they mostly do not want.

Local governments cannot and will not control growth. That is why we had to have statewide planning regulations and why we still need them. There is no such thing as land which has no statewide significance.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
view in context