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View From Sherwood

By Frank Nims
President
Oregonians In Action
March/April 2003

As I go through the morning paper it has become routine to see an article about another company moving out of Oregon, or dropping the state from consideration for a new business.  No doubt there are some economic considerations for the decision, but there is one non-economic factor which could bear heavily on the decision, that is a dearth of suitable places for its employees to live.

While there are some people who choose to live in apartments, town houses or houses on postage stamp sized lots, many, and probably most, would prefer a larger lot with room for their children to play and often a place to plant a garden or raise a few fruit trees. 

They drive around the hill sides with choice building property which is covered with wild blackberries and weeds and find it is zoned Exclusive Farm Use, and which cannot be divided or built on because of the false allusion that we must save all farm land.  How much more sense it would make to rezone land which cannot be farmed at a profit, and make it available for rural home sites for the thousands of people who would like to bring up their family in a country atmosphere. 

Oregon has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the country.  We need more industry to move into the state.  We must do what we can to make the state a more attractive place to live, and that includes making available desirable home sites for employees of prospective new companies.  We can do this at no cost to the taxpayers.