January 11, 2001

John A. Charles, the environmental policy director for the Cascade Policy Institute, told members at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting that environmental "elitism" combined with government controls, are a serious threat to private property rights across the United States.

Charles, who worked for 20 years in the environmental movement, including a stint at the Environmental Defense Fund, said that he was convinced that "the last 30 years of top-down, command-and-control, regulatory approach to the environment is wrong, misguided and immoral, and we should stop doing most of what we're doing."

He pointed to Portland, OR, where the Cascade Institute is based, as the "poster city" for the smart-growth movement and said it has not succeeded in curtailing urban sprawl after 20 years of zoning efforts. He said the phrase urban sprawl, "doesn't really mean anything … to some degree the environmentalist is the person who is already here whose house was built yesterday, but the person who wants to come tomorrow, they are part of the urban sprawl problem."

Charles said one aspect of the Portland plan is a growth boundary around the city, where outside that line, "it is extremely difficult to build anything." He said the boundary could cause a farmer to live in the city and commute to his farm because he would not be able to build a house on that property. He also pointed to a Portland-area pear farm where the owners are unable to divide or sell their property, while high-priced homes are developed all around the farmer's property. He called those farmers "political hostages."

"The most affluent community in Oregon surrounds him (the farmer) on three sides, and they're building this nice little subdivision, and they think looking at his property is really wonderful. They're happy to build next to it as long as he doesn't build."

Portland's zoning programs have made the city an expensive place to live and do business, Charles said. "It's created a cartel of property owners, which means if you have property in the right place you're okay, but if you're outside the boundary you cannot use your property."

While Charles said his think-tank favors getting government out of local zoning, the president of the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation, Barry Bushue, said his organization sees value in zoning to protect certain farmlands.