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Earl Blumenauer Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Representing Oregon's 3rd District St. John's Bridge
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SPEAKS OUT AGAINST IRRESPONSIBLE LAND USE LEGISLATION

Sep 26, 2006

 

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I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy for permitting me speak on this. In a prior life I spent 10 years for administering programs like this with the City of Portland. Our community is like many around the country that have, as the gentleman from New York referenced, sophisticated planning and zoning regulations. These are elements that are developed as a result of local, community pressures to balance interests.

I see no small amount of irony that some of these friends of ours who think that the courts are not capable of ruling on marriage, want to strip away the powers of the federal court to deal with issues of the Pledge of Allegiance, all of the sudden want to overrule over a century of development that deals with planning and zoning in this country. There are appeals that take place each and every day from coast to coast in almost every state of the union where people have some differences of opinion. There are elaborate mechanisms that deal with local appeals where there is negotiation that takes place between the development community, with local officials, planning and zoning boards, that end up giving something that makes sense for the community, makes sense for the developer, makes sense for the protection of the environment and health and development standards.

Under this legislation, one time, if a developer doesn't get what he or she wants, on any meaningful application, whatever that might mean, they can be thrown into the federal judiciary. Now I would suggest that there's a reason why The American Planning Association, Defenders of Wildlife, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Natural Resource Defense Council, The League of Cities, the people who are dealing with trying to make communities more liveable and to make them work are opposed to this legislation. This is, as has been pointed out, nothing to do with kilo. These are areas where there is reasonable exercise of the planning mechanisms over 33 states have developed from coast to coast trying to look at the big picture and trying to balance it. This is a stealth attack on what communities are trying to do to equip people to be able to deal with the consequences of growth and development and pressures and what we learn on an ongoing basis about the impacts environmentally and in terms of better ways to accomplish objectives in the development community. Now I would respectfully suggest that it's far better to allow this process to work rather than trying to drag the federal courts into it unnecessarily.

 



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