Citizen Involvement in Land Use Planning in Jackson County, Oregon

IS IT HAPPENING? Survey May 31, 2006

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Background on Goal 1

In 1973, Oregon adopted an innovative statewide land use planning program.  Thousands of every day citizens participated in the process.  A uniform set of goals for land use and resource utilization was sought.  Oregon’s Statewide Planning Goals and Guidelines came out of this process (see www.lcd.state.or.us for a complete text of the 19 goals).   The goals are mandatory.  The guidelines accompanying the goals are suggestions on how the goals might be implemented.  Under Oregon’s program, every governing body involved in land use planning must have a comprehensive plan consistent with the 19 stated goals. Each comprehensive plan and any changes made to the plan must be approved by the state, to ensure compliance with the goals, before becoming final.  

Citizen Involvement is the first goal in Oregon’s Statewide Planning Goals, and is referred to as “Goal 1”.  Every governing body involved in land use decisions must have a written mechanism in its comprehensive plan for involving citizens in the planning process.  Goal 1 advocates a plan that encourages open input from the citizenry and an effective two-way channel of communication between the citizenry and the governing body.   Goal 1 advocates allocating financial support to citizen involvement programs. There is no enforcement mechanism to compel compliance. Local governments are required to send in annual reports on their progress with citizen involvement.

Survey Methodology

The survey committee members studied each city’s comprehensive plan as it related to citizen involvement in land use planning.  The committee then drafted an extensive questionnaire, based upon one used in a statewide survey conducted by the Citizen Involvement Advisory Committee of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.  A letter was sent to each community’s city planner with copies to other key officials requesting an interview.  Interviews were scheduled by telephone.  Municipal respondents in the interviews varied by city; typically being the planning director or city administrator.  In several cities the mayor and planning commission chairperson also attended. 

LWV teams comprised of two or three League members carried out the interviews.  Most of the interviews were taped to assure accuracy in reporting.  The interviews lasted anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. A copy of the questionnaire was provided to the interviewee at the time of the interview.

The questions asked were divided into three categories:  Category 1 sought information on the city’s compliance with Goal 1; Category 2 dealt with the use by the city of Citizen Advisory Committees (“CACs”) in considering land use issues; and category 3 dealt with miscellaneous issues regarding land use planning; Measure 37, Regional Problem Solving, and Goal 1 Enforcement. 

Jackson County’s Pending Citizen Involvement Plan

The LWV committee chose not to formally interview Jackson County on the citizen involvement component of its comprehensive plan.  Jackson County is currently revising its citizen involvement program and the LWV committee has been closely monitoring this process.  Currently, the Planning Commission is the formal CCI for Jackson County.  When the county eliminated budgeting for staff to assist with citizen outreach, most ongoing CACs dissolved.  Although citizen involvement has occurred in Jackson County land use planning, it is most certainly not at optimal levels.  In the proposed changes to the citizen involvement component of the county’s comprehensive plan, the CCI will operate as an independent body of citizens, reporting directly to the Board of Commissioners.  At the time this report was prepared, final hearings had not been held and a couple of the commissioners were opposing the changes, expressing concern that delays would be created if citizen involvement in land use planning was increased.