Preserve land-use standards that protect our families

What if your neighbor got a permit to build a huge mall next door? And what if another neighbor proposed to build a casino, hotel, gas station and golf course just up the street?

Thankfully, there are protections in place for our communities that prevent big developers from running rough-shod through our neighborhoods.

But don't feel too safe: Oregon had protections in place, too, until they were thrown out by a developers' initiative last fall.

And just recently in Oregon, a permit was approved for developers to pave over 1 million square feet of land in the middle of a farming community — thanks to Measure 37.

This is the reality of Measure 37: land-use chaos that threatens the quality of life in Oregon's communities and rural areas.

Greg Smith

Now, special interests like the Washington Farm Bureau (the lobbyists for large industrial farms) and initiative promoter Tim Eyman are threatening to wreak the same havoc here in Washington by running a similar initiative in 2006.

Under the initiative, local governments and taxpayers must either pay landowners to abide by land-use laws or exempt them from the law.

Measure 37 was funded by developers and big timber companies and it's no surprise that its main achievement is to create loopholes to be exploited by those same interests.

Special interests such as Eyman and developers are trying to exploit the concerns of a few landowners who believe that the use of their property is unfairly restricted. The developers are trying to sell us something other than the truth.

Nina Carter

According to a recent poll conducted by Evans McDonough, 71 percent of Washingtonians do not believe that government is unfairly restricting their use of their property.

Before these special interests run an initiative like Measure 37 in Washington, they would do well to consider what the people of Washington think. After hearing both the pros and cons of a developers' initiative, less than one-third said they would vote for such a measure.

Washingtonians don't want to see the chaos of Measure 37 here in our state, and have a history of opposing such efforts. In 1995, similar interests got together to run a developers' initiative and failed to generate the public support they needed to pass it.

The measure failed when put to the people for a vote. It simply didn't reflect our values. A truly diverse coalition came together and defeated the attack on our quality of life and neighborhoods. The coalition's support rested on tens of thousands of citizens who were members of organizations representing community, civic, conservation, labor, senior, planning and tax-fairness interests.

Washingtonians cherish clean air and drinking water, the right to protect our quality of life from the actions of others and the freedom to raise our children in safe communities. Measure 37 threatens all these things.

The forces behind this initiative have left behind a legacy of horror stories illustrating how Measure 37 was a foolhardy idea. Our neighbors in Oregon stand to see their quality of life hammered by development. If there is a silver lining to their plight, it's that we can learn from their lesson and save ourselves from a similar fate.

Let's begin now to say "no" to any attempt to force a Measure 37 on the people of Washington.

Nina Carter is the executive director of Audubon Washington, a partnership of the state office of the National Audubon Society and Washington's 26 independent Audubon chapters. Greg Smith is the principal at Gregory Broderick Smith Real Estate, a Seattle-based commercial development and property-management firm, and is on the board of Futurewise, a nonprofit focusing on building communities and protecting land.