https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-land-use-douglas-county-rezoning-farm-forest-conservation/
"Douglas County Commissioners will consider a plan Wednesday to open up 35,000 acres of rural land to 20-acre home plots. The land is currently zoned for farm and forest use."
"The county( Douglas) analyzed the acres in question and concluded that they’re not suitable for most types of farming."
"That’s a claim disputed by Greg Holmes, food systems programs director for 1,000 Friends Of Oregon."
“This is the type of land where our cattle and hay production happens, where our wine grapes happen, and other high-value crops to the state of Oregon happen,” Holmes said. He pointed out there’s land with similar soil types and characteristics across the state."
“It may be relatively less productive than some other lands, but if we were to suddenly take this type of land and call it non-resource land anymore and then multiply that across all the counties across the state … we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural lands,” Holmes said."
What if the disputed claim is true? Then yes it should apply to all other agricultural land that is not suitable for most types of farming or refined to apply to all land that is absolutely not suitable for farming.
“Deschutes County is interested in pursuing a similar program,” reads the letter signed by the county’s three commissioners. “We recognize that a subset of resource lands are not accurately designated in our region as well.”
Maybe we have a lot of officially classified farmland in Deschutes that is not suitable for farming. What is the current assessment and taxation on this land. What would it be if it was in a higher use category?
More tax revenue?
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