Oregon Plans

Oregon Plans provides a rich, detailed, and nuanced analysis of the origins and early evolution of Oregon’s nationally renowned land-use planning program.

Drawing primarily on archival sources, Sy Adler describes the passage of key state laws that set the program into motion by establishing the agency charged with implementing those laws, adopting the land-use planning goals that are the heart of the Oregon system, and monitoring and enforcing the implementation of those goals through a unique citizen organization.

Environmental activists, industry groups, local governments, and state officials all played significant roles. Adler brings these key actors—among them governors Tom McCall and Robert Straub, business leaders John Gray and Glenn Jackson, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center and the Oregon State Homebuilders Association—to life.

Oregon Plans both informs those new to Oregon and reminds longtime residents about controversial historic issues and the consequential compromises and choices that were made to address them during the mid-1970s.

The book will interest anyone involved in land use, conservation, and environmental issues—from citizens to officials to developers—in Oregon and beyond.

Download an excerpt from Oregon Plans.