Hood River News

 Measure 49 Wins

By JONATHAN GRACA
HRVRC Executive Director
November 7th, , 2007

Hood River Valley Residents’ Committee members and local volunteers for the Yes on 49 campaign celebrated election night at Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River.

“I’m ecstatic about our victory” said Jonathan Graca, executive director for Hood River Valley Residents Committee and field coordinator for the Yes on 49 campaign. “62% of voters – a supermajority - demonstrated that the bag of goods they received with Measure 37 was not the bag they wanted.” “Here in Hood River, the overwhelming answer was that voters wanted to protect their farms, forests and water and not allow a strong agricultural economy to be dismantled parcel by parcel.” “Hood River citizens enjoy the quality of life they have due to Oregon’s land use laws. Measure 49 will allow that quality of life to continue while balancing it with property owner’s receiving additional compensation through the ability to build a few homes.”


Hood River Valley Residents’ Committee was founded in 1977 and is the second oldest local land use non-profit that works to protect farms and forest and promote livable communities in Hood River County. They have been working to educate and engage citizens about the need to ‘fix’ Measure 37 for the last three years. This past year, they held four educational forums, created new visuals of Measure 37 claims in Hood River Valley and worked to educate county and state representatives about how Measure 37 could impact our community.

What is next for this group? In the immediate future, HRVRC plans to work to ensure a prompt and efficient transition from Measure 37 to Measure 49. HRVRC also wants to use the increased dialogue around land use as a catalyst to broaden the discussion about how we use our land and what we want our state to look like in the future.