$14 Million Measure 37 Claims Against Portland

The following is a press release from O’Donnell & Clark LLP:

PRESS RELEASE: October 26,2006:

TWO FAMILIES FILE MEASURE 37 CLAIMS AGAINST CITY OF PORTLAND WORTH NEARLY $14,000,000.00

PORTLAND, OR “” Two families with approximately 33 acres of property on SE Powell Blvd. filed Measure 37 claims totaling $13,947,000.00 against the City of Portland over Portland’s environmental overlay zones and other zoning put in place after they purchased the property. Myron Curtis, of Curtis Trailer Sales, and Moyer Theaters, the Moyer family’s longstanding Portland business, filed one claim each, claiming that Portland’s zoning laws had severely diminished the value of their properties, comprising 20 acres and 13 acres respectively, stretching between SE 102 and SE 108 Avenues.

“Portland’s environmental overlay zones have devastated the value of these families’ properties without providing any significant environmental benefits to the community” said Roggendorf, an attorney with the law firm of O’Donnell & Clark, representing the Curtises and the Moyers. “Our clients are not short-term real estate speculators or large development firms. Rather, they are local families with deep and longstanding roots in the community who purchased these properties 40, even 50 years ago. Through the implementation of regulation after regulation, the City has decimated these families’ investments and destroyed any reasonable use of most of these properties,” Roggendorf stated. “It is simply not fair.”

The City’s environmental overlay zones are highly complex and confusing regulations that restrict all but the most limited uses of properties subjected to these regulations. In most cases, these regulations prohibit development of as much as 85% or more of such property. When other zoning changes and regulations are considered, such as bans on retail commercial uses and sign restrictions, the values and uses of these properties have been reduced even further.

“If the City is willing to negotiate, we are willing to listen,” said Roggendorf. “But the cost of open space and parks cannot be foisted off onto individual landowners just because it is easier and cheaper for the City than paying for what it wants. Measure 37 tells the government “˜no more.'”

Contact: Kristian Roggendorf (503) 274-1168 [email protected]