Undermining land use laws

Rep. Gene Whisnant's HB 3372, allowing a 1,500 acre "Cyrus Heritage Farm" development east of Sisters is the kind of special interest legislation that erodes people's faith in their government.

Crafted exclusively to benefit one family's enterprise, it effectively circumvents and cuts the foundations out from under Oregon's land use laws.

You can't blame the Cyrus family for trying everything they can to make their business flourish in tough times. As everyone knows, they've been in this country for a long time and have made significant contributions to the Sisters community.

This isn't about that. It's about whether real estate development goes forward under land use regulations or under whatever conditions your local representative can sell to the legislature.

Land use laws exist to provide clear and objective standards that everyone can see and understand. We can choose to raise or lower the bar, but special legislation like HB 3372 simply removes the bar entirely - for one business.

No matter what contributions are attached to sweeten the deal, HB 3372 is bad public policy.

Jim Cornelius, Editor