Hector Macpherson Jr., Father of Oregon’s Land-Use System, Remembered
Hector Macpherson Jr. September 19, 1918 – March 21, 2015
Hector Macpherson had a longstanding vision and commitment to the preservation of Oregon’s farmland. For 50 years, as a farmer, Linn County planning commissioner, State Senator and member of the Land Conservation and Development Commission, Macpherson was the driving force for land use planning and farmland protection in Oregon. McPherson died March 21.
Concerned about the mobile home parks and other development being approved near his farm, he helped to form the Linn County Planning Commission in the mid 1960s. As concern for the loss of farmland in Oregon increased, Macpherson forcefully spoke out against “a valley where neighbor encroaches upon neighbor… a land defiled and unsightly, a monument to man’s greed and shortsightedness.”
He was an early supporter of state legislation to require local land-use planning and supported Senate Bill 10, which required every city and county in the state to have a comprehensive land-use plan that met state standards. Because of his interest in this subject, Macpherson ran successfully for the State Senate in 1970. When the Legislative leadership would not establish an interim land-use committee to study and develop legislation for the 1973 session, Macpherson formed his own committee to develop legislation. Working with various interest groups and the Governor’s office, he developed a bipartisan proposal that became Senate Bill 100 that he and Senator Ted Hallock of Portland introduced in the 1973 Legislative session.
Senate Bill 100 established our statewide land use system, the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) and statewide planning goals with which local comprehensive plans and implementing regulations must comply. For Macpherson, a companion bill, Senate Bill 101 “ranks in stature just slightly below Senate Bill 100 in importance as my greatest achievement in 1973.” This bill established the state’s “Agricultural Land Use Policy” (not amended since 1973), reformed the exclusive farm use provisions for county zoning and limited the regulation of farming practices by counties.
On the Senate floor, he spoke eloquently about Senate Bill 101 when he said: “This bill speaks to the problem we are all concerned about – we know that Oregon’s prime agricultural land is rapidly being urbanized – these limited high value agricultural soil resources should be kept in agricultural production for as long as possible because of the important contribution they make to Oregon’s economy.”
But Macpherson was also a pragmatist in his approach and understood the needs of rural land owners. He supported permitting some nonfarm dwellings not “to open the exclusive farm use zone to subdivisions…” but rather to provide “a little escape valve here whereby we can allow a small amount of single-family residential dwellings within an exclusive farm use zone.”
His Legislative partner, Ted Hallock, said Macpherson was really interested in just one thing, “the actual nobility of the bill and the language.” And during the ordeal of implementing and amending Ballot Measure 37, he reminded us to “remember the first words of the preamble of Senate Bill 100:
“The Legislative Assembly finds that uncoordinated use of lands within the state threaten the orderly development, the environment of this state and the health, safety, order convenience, prosperity and welfare of the people of this state.”
Macpherson believed that “these words are as true today as they were in 1973 when Ted and I proposed them. A new generation of leaders must find a way to balance the need for public and private gain that is acceptable to the majority.”
Macpherson was a prophet when it came to land-use planning with great vision and goals. He believed that Senate Bill 100 and Senate Bill 101 “often were the only barriers to the decimation of their policy objectives, the counties and their rapacious desire to accommodate land developers. Like Macpherson we must remember that “it’s a battle in which we can never claim victory.”
But he was secure in his achievements and legacy when he wrote: “As we hand off the baton to successors it is rewarding to know we did our part and ran the good race.” We can all be thankful for what Macpherson did, for the legacy and responsibility he has left us and for the very good race he ran.
The planning community will always to be grateful to and miss the leadership and vision of Hector Macpherson.
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Ron Eber worked for the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) from 1976 to 2008.
He was the agricultural lands specialist and worked with Hector Macpherson on farmland protection, including legislative changes to the exclusive farm use laws Macpherson originally authored. Ron coauthored with land-use attorney Ed Sullivan a history of farmland protection entitled “The Long and Winding Road: Farmland Protection in Oregon 1961- 2009”, which is dedicated to Macpherson.
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Related link: The Albany Democrat-Herald published Macpherson’s obituary in March, describing his military service as well as his role in Oregon’s land-use system.
Related link: Senate Bill 100 – www.oregon.gov/LCD/docs/bills/sb100.pdf