Earl Blumenauer: “late last year we passed legislation that was an important landmark in the debate over the resolution of private…”

“late last year we passed legislation that was an important landmark in the debate over the resolution of private property rights disputes. In far too many parts of the country we have a patchwork system for resolving land use disputes that relies almost entirely upon legal maneuvering and political pressure. In many cases, this is because these areas lack comprehensive land use plans developed by local government with the help of their citizens and business interests. This is an exceedingly inefficient and often unfair way to resolve the important public policy decisions attendant to development. There needs to be a way to provide incentives to State and local governments to carefully codify their planning objectives in terms of zoning and development requirements, along with cost and fee structures that require development to pay its own way. A combination of sound land use planning and appropriate user fee structures makes good development possible. The legislation before us today is, in part, a logical addition to the steps we took in passing H.R. 1535. Members on both sides of the aisle see the wisdom of allowing both the claim suit and the compensation suit to be heard in one court opposed to two. But unfortunately, in attempting to fix this problem, H.R. 992 creates a new one which is, for me, decisive. H.R. 922 would severely weaken a critical component of our environmental and labor laws, the so-called preclusive review.”