County Judge Slaps Down North Plains Leaders And Allows Vote On Growth

Outraged citizens win temporary victory against City Council’s attempt to silence the people.

On March 14th, 2024, in an emergency session of the North Plains City Council, Mayor Terin Lenahan and the City Council, led by legal opinions of City attorney Christopher Crean, frantically pushed through an Ordinance in a special session to make sure that the Referendum on North Plains Growth was removed from the Washington County ballot.  Anyone in the meeting witnessed this group of leaders offer little debate and forcefully drive through the Ordinance.  Why?  Clearly, they did not want to allow the vote nor have the general public see the outcome, which would, by all odds makers, prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the residents of North Plains do not support the decisions of the Council.

Following that vote and just hours after Governor Kotek signed a State bill aimed at stripping North Plains voters of their right to decide on urban expansion, a coalition of concerned residents, including Friends of North Plains Smart Growth and Save Helvetia, scored a decisive legal victory.

In a last-minute reprieve, a Washington County judge indicated his intention to issue a temporary restraining order on Thursday. This order would compel election officials to include the North Plains UGB expansion referendum on the May 21st ballot. Judge Andrew Erwin’s decision hinged on the argument presented in a lawsuit filed earlier that week by Friends Of North Plains Smart Growth, which asserted the voters’ right to participate in the decision-making process.

This ruling places significant time pressure on Washington County, which aims to finalize ballots this week. With the limited window for appeal, North Plains residents appear likely to cast their votes on whether the community should double in size by incorporating an additional 855 acres. 

However, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the potential outcome. In a move raising concerns about legislative overreach, the Oregon Legislature, led by Senator Janeen Sollman and others, recently passed House Bill 4026.   This bill effectively thwarts public referendums on urban growth boundary (UGB) expansions for cities.

Notably, the legislation was applied retroactively, specifically targeting a referendum in North Plains already slated for the May 21st ballot. Governor Tina Kotek signed the bill into law on Wednesday. The state’s legal representatives contend that city expansions are exempt from referendums, and there is no precedent for Oregon courts addressing this specific issue.

The City Council’s maneuvering—approving an ordinance to remove the voter referendum from the ballot the moment a seemingly convenient state law passed—has been halted by a temporary restraining order. This blatant attempt to subvert democracy was exposed, and for now, the referendum will appear on the May ballot as planned. It is unclear whether the outcome will ever be known or become law due to the State ordinance which itself is headed to court.

This land use story is one example of how local control, citizen voices, and votes are suppressed by the overarching power of the State and special interests who seem to care very little for the wishes of local people.  In so many ways, this case will be a landmark one.

Read the latest Press Release Below

Press Release:  Friends Of North Plains Smart Growth

Contact Information for Information or Photographs
Friends of North Plains Smart Growth
Aaron Nichols, Committee Member
friendsnorthplainssmartgrowth@gmail.com
www.FriendsOfNorthPlains.org

Release Date
Thursday, March 21st, 2024

For immediate release

North Plains, OR. Friends of North Plains Smart Growth, a citizens group of residents of North Plains and neighboring farmers, announced today that they have obtained a temporary restraining order that will keep the referendum 34-327 on the ballot. This victory comes after a long and twisted path to the ballot box.

In September, the North Plains City Council voted to expand their city by 855 acres – the largest Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansion by percentage basis ever in Oregon. Shortly after that, Friends of North Plains Smart Growth collected signatures to have the city’s UGB expansion plan put to voters this May. This was the first time in the 50 year history of Oregon’s land use program that a referendum was called on a UGB expansion decision.

The referendum was thrown into chaos when the State legislature, heavily lobbied by the city, passed a last-minute bill to retroactively disallow all referendums on UGB issues – a law clearly targeting only the North Plains referendum. Last Thursday, before the governor even signed the bill, the city council voted to have the referendum removed from the ballot despite having no legal authority to do so.

The governor signed the bill into law on Wednesday, March 20, giving the group mere hours to file a temporary restraining order to prevent the county from removing the referendum from the May ballot.

“The city has tried to block public participation and has stretched its authority well beyond what is legal in its attempt to get this unprecedentedly large plan through,” stated Aaron Nichols of Friends of North Plains Smart Growth, a group that supports the referendum. “From the first, the city has tried to keep citizens out of the process. They noticed meetings as little as possible, they made it clear that citizen participation was not welcome when people did show up, and instead chose to rely on outside interests, lobbyists, and consultants. Today, the city’s lawyer even refused to be served papers on behalf of his clients, forcing local residents to serve papers to the city themselves. Rather than rely on the facts or make their case to their own residents,
city council has paid large sums to lawyers to make backroom deals in Salem and try to obstruct the judicial process in court.”

In the hearing, which turned on who would be harmed by allowing the referendum to go through or be removed from the ballot, the city’s attorney proved unable to show any harm the city would face by hearing from its own voters. Should the referendum eventually be declared illegal it
would be an advisory vote with no force but, apart from embarrassment, the city could not show how this would harm them. Additionally, the judge took issue with the way the process had played out up until now. He asked the city why they had waited until the last moment to appeal this if they believed it a non-referable issue from the start and said that a last minute bill from the legislature and an eleventh hour signing by the governor seemed dirty. Especially as he pointed out, the legislature is not the body that clarifies constitutional rights.

While this means the question “Shall North Plains Expand its Urban Growth Boundary” will go to voters in a few months, the city is likely to continue to challenge the legality of the measure and likely to attempt to prevent certification of the ballot measure. The lawyer for the plaintiff, Jesse
Buss of Willamette Law Group, stated:

“Ultimately, HB 4026-A represents an attempt by developers and the North Plains City Council, as supported by the Oregon Legislature, to cancel
an election they don’t want to happen. But my clients qualified for this ballot measure election many months ago; they, and all North Plains voters, have a vested right to vote in this election. So we’re asking the court to tell the developers, the City Council, and the Legislature to stay in
their lanes”

He has some familiarity with the laws governing referenda: in 2020 Buss successfully overturned former Secretary of State Bev Clarno’s rejection of three statewide ballot measures intended to protect forests and the clean drinking water they provide. That victory helped pave the way for the unprecedented 2021 Private Forest Accord.

According to Friends of North Plains Smart Growth, this marks the beginning of their electoral campaign. “Expect to see a lot of signs around town, bumper stickers, and hear the talk in town. But we don’t plan to run this campaign with mailers or signs – in the next few days we will have
an order of magnitude analysis for traffic and water use so we can, finally, start putting real numbers and real planning before the voters. Due to the publicity and the help of an amazing former city planner, we expect that the average voter will have access to more and better information than council did when it voted on the ordinance originally” stated Aaron Nichols.

The legal victory for the group was hard won – they raised 13,000 dollars on a GoFundMe page over a few days to pay their legal costs and had only days to draft the complaint and make their arguments in court and mere hours to file the restraining order. But, though this all but guarantees the measure will be on the ballots when they are printed on Monday, it doesn’t end the legal challenges.

“We fully expect the city to continue to fight this in court” said Mr. Nichols. “They haven’t accepted that direct democracy puts the final decision in the hands of voters yet and I am sure they will challenge this law for as long as they can. And I am sure they will continue to lose in court.”