91视频

Oregon has lost a significant figure in its land use history, one who clearly shaped its program, and in whom resided much of its institutional memory. Robert E. (鈥淏ob鈥�) Stacey succumbed to a long-standing illness last month, leaving Oregonians the poorer for his loss.

Bob was born and raised in the Portland area. He attended Parkrose High School, Reed College, and the University of Oregon Law School. Along with Richard Benner, Bob was chosen by 1000 Friends of Oregon, a land use watchdog formed by then-Gov. Tom McCall and Henry Richmond III, to assure that the promises contained in SB 100 in 1973, were carried out. Those promises included local implementation of bold state land use policies.

For the first 20 years of the program, those policies often focused on the preservation of rural lands mostly for resource (farm and forest) uses. Bob frequently represented 1000 Friends in multiple successful challenges to county plans that insufficiently protected those resources in those years, which led to the success of the Oregon land use program in rural areas.

Bob鈥檚 career spanned just about every opportunity to formulate, advance, and implement good policy. As a hirsute young lawyer, Bob fought the battles to conserve resource lands by calling out phony farm plans and local ordinances that authorized those plans. He insisted on compact urban growth boundaries, and fought the Westside Bypass proposal that would have converted thousands of acres of farmland in Washington County. And he opposed the incipient city of Rajneeshpuram until that enterprise collapsed as a result of the cult leaders鈥� criminality. All these efforts won praise from Bob鈥檚 peers and led to the respect that 1000 Friends holds among land use lawyers.

Bob left 1000 Friends in 1987 to work with his friend and fellow public policy intellectual Earl Blumenauer 鈥� first when Blumenauer was a Portland city commissioner, and later when Blumenauer was elected to Congress. But Portland called Bob back when Commissioner Charlie Hales named him the city鈥檚 planning director; he served from 1989 through 1993. He moved on to become senior policy advisor to then-Gov. Barbara Roberts from 1993-95, helping secure final adoption of the LUTRAQ project 鈥� an alternative to the Western Bypass that recognized the relationship of land use and transportation in planning for the state鈥檚 future.

For a brief time (1995-97), Bob entered private practice, but 鈥渓ike an old horse returning to the barn,鈥� as he characterized it, Bob returned to the public sector as policy and planning director for TriMet at a time when light rail plans were formulated and funded. He then returned to become Congressman Blumenauer鈥檚 chief of staff to work on national transportation issues. Bob returned to Portland to be director of his former employer, 1000 Friends of Oregon, in time to deal with the challenges of Measures 7 and 37, which would have gutted Oregon鈥檚 land use program and participated in the 鈥渇ix鈥� of that issue in Measure 49, which was approved by voters in 2006.

Finally, Bob was heavily involved with regional government, running unsuccessfully for Metro chair in 2010 鈥� losing by a narrow margin, despite running as a candidate associated with planned, managed growth, in the teeth of the Great Recession. But he won a Metro Council seat on three occasions beginning in 2012.

Blumenauer put it best when he said of Bob, 鈥淥regon just lost the most important person that most people never heard of,鈥� notwithstanding his labor in the field of land use law for a half century. He helped establish a strong policy preference for effective urban growth management by concentrating growth in urban areas and strengthening resource use of rural areas. He worked out transportation policy that has allowed TriMet to be able to serve the region, along with the inclusion of biking and walking as part of regional and local land use policy. Last year, Portland recognized Bob鈥檚 leadership by naming a TriMet pedestrian-bicyclist bridge just east of the Clinton St. / S.E. 12th Ave. MAX station after him.

But perhaps Bob鈥檚 most outstanding quality was his nearly unshakable equanimity. Despite his overwhelming knowledge of planning and law and his detailed grasp of public policy and the reasons for that policy, he never 鈥渢alked down鈥� to anyone less skilled or less knowledgeable. He did not lose his temper, even in the most heated situations. Instead, he often infuriated his opponents with unflappable reason. Those qualities served him well in the early days of the land use program when dealing with proponents of policies to allow farmland to be subdivided or forestland to be studded with non-forest dwellings. Later in his career, that equanimity was tested by opponents of light rail or of increased densities in existing single-family neighborhoods.聽 Those of us who were, or are, land use advocates found this quality admirable, even if we didn鈥檛 always agree with his positions.

Another of Bob鈥檚 admirable qualities was his persuasiveness. Many was the time that Bob appeared before local elected officials and discussed proposals for land use regulations or specific projects. By a careful combination of sweet reason, mixed with the cold prediction that the proposal was doomed, Bob was able to convince these officials (whether at the first hearing or after he caused the proposal to be reversed or remanded) that the proposal would not fly. Even more compelling was his ability to persuade hostile legislators to give way on improvident ideas, especially when he had the prospect of a gubernatorial veto in his back pocket. Some legislators might not have liked Bob for these qualities 鈥� but they respected him.

Bob Stacey was a good lawyer, a good policymaker, and a fine human being. Not many people have his qualities, singly or in combination. The contributions he made to land use and transportation policy are unsurpassed. We, his colleagues, and the Oregon land use program will miss him greatly.

Edward Sullivan is a retired practitioner of land use and municipal law with more than 50 years of experience. Contact him at [email protected].

Carrie Richter is an attorney specializing in land use and municipal law at Bateman Seidel. Contact her at 503-972-9903 or [email protected].

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither of the authors nor the 91视频 guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.