Lars Larson on the Sweeney’s

Let’s talk about some of those “Yes on 49″ ads.

Let’s talk about the “Yes on 49″ ads, like the people who’d like to see Measure 37 effectively repealed. They talk about how they value farm land and how it’s threatened by development. But, they don’t mention that the farm that the Sweeney family sold in Dayton was sold so it could be developed and the big bucks they made from that development.

It wouldn’t bother me to see them making bank selling their own land if the Sweeney’s weren’t now advocating to take those same land—use rights away from other land owners in Oregon. Because the Sweeney’s got a twofer. Their in-town land was much more valuable because it was brought into the Urban Growth Boundary. The big bucks they got let them buy a lot of new farmland because the farmers who owned it are denied the right to develop it.

Oregon’s land-use laws let the Sweeney’s sell high and buy low. If Measure 49 passes, all the land around the Sweeney’s will still stay cheap. The Sweeney’s got their big gain and now they want to deny it to others.