Community Organization Takes North Plains’ Expansion to the Voters

Contact Information for Information or Photographs

Friends of North Plains Smart Growth

Aaron Nichols, Committee Member

503.647.7406

Release Date: March 21, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

North Plains, OR. Friends of North Plains Smart Growth, a citizens group of residents of North Plains and neighboring farmers, announced today that they have obtained a temporary restraining order that will keep the referendum 34-327 on the ballot. This victory comes after a long and twisted path to the ballot box.

In September, the North Plains City Council voted to expand their city by 855 acres – the largest Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansion by percentage basis ever in Oregon. Shortly after that, Friends of North Plains Smart Growth collected signatures to have the city’s UGB expansion plan put to voters this May. This was the first time in the 50 year history of Oregon’s land use program that a referendum was called on a UGB expansion decision.

The referendum was thrown into chaos when the State legislature, heavily lobbied by the city, passed a last-minute bill to retroactively disallow all referendums on UGB issues – a law clearly targeting only the North Plains referendum. Last Thursday, before the governor even signed the bill, the city council voted to have the referendum removed from the ballot despite having no legal authority to do so.

The governor signed the bill into law on Wednesday, March 20, giving the group mere hours to file a temporary restraining order to prevent the county from removing the referendum from the May ballot.

“The city has tried to block public participation and has stretched its authority well beyond what is legal in its attempt to get this unprecedentedly large plan through,” stated Aaron Nichols of Friends of North Plains Smart Growth, a group that supports the referendum. “From the first, the city has tried to keep citizens out of the process. They noticed meetings as little as possible, they made it clear that citizen participation was not welcome when people did show up, and instead chose to rely on outside interests, lobbyists, and consultants. Today, the city’s lawyer even refused to be served papers on behalf of his clients, forcing local residents to serve papers to the city themselves. Rather than rely on the facts or make their case to their own residents,
city council has paid large sums to lawyers to make backroom deals in Salem and try to obstruct the judicial process in court.”

In the hearing, which turned on who would be harmed by allowing the referendum to go through or be removed from the ballot, the city’s attorney proved unable to show any harm the city would face by hearing from its own voters. Should the referendum eventually be declared illegal it
would be an advisory vote with no force but, apart from embarrassment, the city could not show how this would harm them. Additionally, the judge took issue with the way the process had played out up until now. He asked the city why they had waited until the last moment to appeal this if they believed it a non-referable issue from the start and said that a last minute bill from the legislature and an eleventh hour signing by the governor seemed dirty. Especially as he pointed out, the legislature is not the body that clarifies constitutional rights.

While this means the question “Shall North Plains Expand its Urban Growth Boundary” will go to voters in a few months, the city is likely to continue to challenge the legality of the measure and likely to attempt to prevent certification of the ballot measure. The lawyer for the plaintiff, Jesse
Buss of Willamette Law Group, stated:

“Ultimately, HB 4026-A represents an attempt by developers and the North Plains City Council, as supported by the Oregon Legislature, to cancel
an election they don’t want to happen. But my clients qualified for this ballot measure election many months ago; they, and all North Plains voters, have a vested right to vote in this election. So we’re asking the court to tell the developers, the City Council, and the Legislature to stay in
their lanes”

He has some familiarity with the laws governing referenda: in 2020 Buss successfully overturned former Secretary of State Bev Clarno’s rejection of three statewide ballot measures intended to protect forests and the clean drinking water they provide. That victory helped pave the way for the unprecedented 2021 Private Forest Accord.

According to Friends of North Plains Smart Growth, this marks the beginning of their electoral campaign. “Expect to see a lot of signs around town, bumper stickers, and hear the talk in town. But we don’t plan to run this campaign with mailers or signs – in the next few days we will have
an order of magnitude analysis for traffic and water use so we can, finally, start putting real numbers and real planning before the voters. Due to the publicity and the help of an amazing former city planner, we expect that the average voter will have access to more and better information than council did when it voted on the ordinance originally” stated Aaron Nichols.

The legal victory for the group was hard won – they raised 13,000 dollars on a GoFundMe page over a few days to pay their legal costs and had only days to draft the complaint and make their arguments in court and mere hours to file the restraining order. But, though this all but guarantees the measure will be on the ballots when they are printed on Monday, it doesn’t end the legal challenges.

“We fully expect the city to continue to fight this in court” said Mr. Nichols. “They haven’t accepted that direct democracy puts the final decision in the hands of voters yet and I am sure they will challenge this law for as long as they can. And I am sure they will continue to lose in court.”

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