Grapes of Cash

[July 4th, 2007]

Portland's Lewis & Clark College is poised to subdivide a 3,600-acre parcel of agricultural land in Eastern Oregon into 19-acre "farmettes" tricked out with individual vineyards.

The would-be oasis along the Columbia River is 200 miles from the college, in Umatilla County. And, according to critics of the possible development, it's far from a natural fit in the water-thirsty region.

"It is shocking to us that a college like Lewis & Clark that does a lot of work in land-use planning and environmental law would propose this," says Robert Mautz, a Pendleton lawyer who used to own property near Lewis & Clark's land. "It violates every concept of land-use planning that we know of."

Mautz levels that charge at the liberal-arts college because the land, donated in pieces beginning in 1977 to Lewis & Clark by deceased benefactor R.W. Richmond, is zoned exclusively for limited farm use. But Lewis & Clark can challenge the county's land-use restrictions because of Measure 37, the voter-approved property-rights ballot measure that lets land owners claim damages from government regulations, or get waivers.

Five times larger than Portland's Forest Park, the land in question sits next to a rocky bluff with expansive views of the river. It has traditionally been used to raise cattle, not houses. (In recent years, the college leased portions to a rancher whose cows grazed there under a deal that netted the college "hundreds of dollars" a year, according to David Ellis, Lewis & Clark's general counsel.)

Now the college is trying to open up more money-making options for the land, a gift that was intended to generate funds for college scholarships. Lewis & Clark previously considered building a wind farm, before learning the site was ill-suited for generating wind power.

The college filed its Measure 37 claim for $20 million on the property in December, arguing that the county should waive the ban on farmettes on all of the college's 3,900 acres in the county.

Umatilla County commissioners responded in June by waiving that land-use restriction on 3,600 acres. The other 300 acres were donated to Lewis & Clark after the county enacted the regulations the college was asking the county to waive.

The county's only other option on the 3,600 acres would have been to compensate the college for reducing the land's fair market value, which the college says is $5,000 per acre, despite the fact that the farmland carries no water rights. At $5,000 per acre, the cost would be $18 million in a county that has an annual budget of $59 million.

It's the lack of water rights on the land that heightens a few neighbors' irritation.

High-dollar crops such as potatoes and carrots are staples of the economy and require vast amounts of irrigated water. And the proposal to build homes and "vineyard farmettes," as they are called in public records, threatens to diminish the region's critical water supply, according to Umatilla County Commissioner Larry Givens.

What to do with the land represents a bit of a PR dilemma for Lewis & Clark. Although Lewis & Clark's former law school dean, Jim Huffman, represented the pro-Measure 37 group Oregonians in Action, the law school is widely known for the kind of pro-environment progressivism that opposes such measures.

Lewis & Clark law professor William Funk wouldn't comment on the college's Measure 37 claim, but said the law is bad policy and "rewards people inappropriately."

The college still faces roadblocks for its "farmettes" proposal. For one thing, it must seek approval from the state for various parts of the plan. The future of Measure 37 itself is also in question, given that the Legislature has sent voters a proposed re-jigger of the law.

Ellis, the college's general counsel, also notes that the Measure 37 claim is not an outline for a concrete plan. It's a request to remove regulations that limit what's possible today, a list that used to include modest subdivisions.

"It's taken us 30 years to get this far," Ellis says. "Within the next 30 years, we'll get farther."