Submitting Testimony Against the Governor’s Land Grab
WHY TESTIFY
The Governor needs to hear that this land grab is not only unnecessary and unwise, but unpopular. That’s where all of us come into play!
WHEN TO TESTIFY
Submit early!
While it will be accepted between October 3 and October 30 at 5pm, it is best to submit now.
WHERE TO TESTIFY
By email
Oregon.CHIPS@oregon.gov
— or —
By USPS
900 Court Street Suite 255 Salem, OR 97301
HOW TO FORMAT
If submitting electronically, you can write your testimony directly into the email or write it in a Word document that you save as a PDF attach in your email.
STOP THE SPRAWL
STOP THE SPRAWL
OUR LAND
OUR VOICE
OUR LAND OUR VOICE
STOP THE SPRAWL
STOP THE SPRAWL
Writing your Testimony
Writing testimony doesn’t have to be hard! Impactful testimony can be just two paragraphs - one telling who you are and how you are affected and the second saying why you are testifying - what brought you here. You are welcome to use any of our points in the sample testimony below or write your own. Of course, you are welcome to add more information and if you have a special perspective from your training, your job, or your experience; please share that.
If that’s a lot for right now we get it! You can sign the testimony below and send that in and the governor will know you support smart growth and you oppose this undemocratic move.
Feel free to send your testimony to us if it’s OK for us to quote from it in our social media, or if you have questions or want help with writing it:
hello@friendsofsmartgrowth.org
Sample Testimony
Dear Governor Kotek,
My name is __________ and I live in __________. I strongly oppose any use of the rezoning powers of SB 4 to bring in land for Hillsboro or any other attempt to skirt and undermine our land use planning system at the behest of big business.
The land we have is irreplaceable and the local community should be involved in deciding what we protect and how we grow. This process provides the very minimum of public input and gives the you the first and final decision. Residents should be involved in the process according to how the decision will affect them. Instead SB 4 creates a system where land is traded in boardrooms and backrooms and those without money and influence are only informed of the decision once it’s been negotiated. This is not how the system is supposed to work in Oregon and this isn’t a system we want to live under.
Though democratic decision making and listening to residents is at the top of my list of reasons, there are many others to reject Hillsboro’s request.
This land is not needed by HIllsboro - they have 1475 undeveloped acres available to them for industrial growth. Industrial uses should go on industrial land where it is proximate to like uses - not set in the middle of farmland miles from any infrastructure.
The land being taken is some of our best farmland and supports farm communities and infrastructure we need for jobs, carbon sequestration, and food as the climate changes.
Hillsboro has been profligate and wasted much of its industrial land on data centers and warehouses - uses our area doesn’t need and shouldn’t be wasting farmland on. This behavior should not be rewarded, especially when more land isn’t even needed.
This specific land is being brought in not because it is a good spot for factories but due to a decades long lobbying campaign by private lobbyists who stand to make large amounts of money and the City of Hillsboro which, despite it’s statements to the contrary, has never accepted the grand bargain and wants to license to sprawl with few restraints.
In Hillsboro, and Oregon, we want to respect our wild and working lands and keeping them beautiful and productive. Allowing Hillsboro to sprawl all the way to Jackson School Road destroys much of what is left of the city’s connection to agriculture.
For these reasons and more I urge you not to bring this land into the Urban Growth Boundary.
{Your Name}