MAY 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Big Look begins big schedule of meetings
STATEWIDE The Big
Look task force plans to hold 27 separate meetings in June.
It’s a frenetic pace that the group — which has
been stymied by an eight-month enforced hiatus in 2007 and
limited funding — will maintain for rest of the year as
it takes on what has been called the most important business
issue in Oregon: recommending changes to the state’s
dated land-use planning system to the 2009 legislative
session.
e-sources
To review documents and research by the Big Look task
force, in addition to its calendar, go to oregonbiglook.org.
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Members of the task force — such as Jill Gelineau, a
land-use lawyer at Portland’s Schwabe, Williamson and
Wyatt, and Gretchen Palmer with Bend’s Palmer Home Sales
— are optimistic they can complete their monumental task
in the final six months of this year. But they also acknowledge
the process — primarily public input — will suffer
due to the limited time and funding.
Big Look was created by Gov. Ted Kulongoski in 2006. Its
funding was yanked early last year until voters had a chance to
weigh in on Measure 49. It was refunded — albeit with
$200,000 less than the group requested — in the special
legislative session. Now the clock is ticking.
But the compressed time frame might not be all bad. Task force
member Ken Bailey, vice president and shareholder in Orchard
View Farms in The Dalles, says they won’t be able to do
as much with limited resources, but it will force them to be
more focused.
“We can’t bring in too many new issues,” he
says. “I still think we can get the basics
done.”
ABRAHAM HYATT
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