Measure 49: Our chance to fix 37's flaws

Measure 49: Our one chance to protect what's special about Oregon

Dear Fellow Oregonian:

When you think of Oregon, what comes to mind?

• Is it rolling farmland that supports an astonishing array of agricultural products?
• Is it our majestic forests and clear, clean water?
• Is it our spectacular coastline, with beaches that belong to all of us?
• Or is it the fact that all these things combine to give us a quality of life that has disappeared from so many other places?

If these things are as important to you as they are to us, we invite you to visit the "Yes on 49" website.

Right now, what makes Oregon special is very much at risk because of the flaws and loopholes of Measure 37. Passed in 2004, Measure 37 was advertised as a way that small individual landowners could build a few houses on their property, if that was allowed at the time they bought that property.

Oregonians voted to help those people. But what Measure 37 delivered was quite different: huge, sprawling development that threatens to eat up much of what we treasure most about Oregon.

Measure 49 does not repeal Measure 37. But it does fix the flaws of 37: delivering on the promises made to small individual property owners while preventing the most egregious abuses of huge housing subdivisions, commercial and industrial development, destruction of prime farmland and forests, and threats to water supplies that families depend on.

Explore the "Yes on 49" website and learn more about why Measure 49 is so important for Oregon. And join this campaign that really reflects the face of Oregon: Republican and Democrat, urban and rural, elected leaders and citizens from the grassroots. We may come from different backgrounds, but we are united in our love for Oregon, and our determination to keep it a special place.

Sincerely,

• Governor Ted Kulongoski
• Governor John Kitzhaber
• Governor Barbara Roberts
• Governor Victor Atiyeh
• Robert Gootee, CEO ODS Corp
• Meryl Redisch, Audubon Society of Portland
• Russ Hoeflich, The Nature Conservancy
• Dick Reiten, Chairman Northwest Natural
• Bruce Chapin, Marion County Representative, Oregon Farm Bureau Board

Click on the following "Yes on 49" website links for more information.

• Flaws of Measure 37
• Official Ballot Information
• How Measure 49 Works
• Questions and Answers on 49
• Get the Facts on 49
• Why We Need Measure 49