Oregon House Bill 2997 was introduced by Representatives Garrard and Richardson to substantially modify the structure of Oregon's Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC). The bill would create a set of five regional commissions, elected by the county commissioners/judges from within those regions and replace the state LCDC commissioners (currently appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate) with the chairs of those five new regional commissioners. Regional commissioners could be replaced at any time by vote of the county heads in the regions.
The intended effect is to maximize rural decision-making power over statewide landuse issues, favoring geography over demographics.
Counties heads would be electing their own oversight bodies at both the regional and state level, diminishing the independence of the oversight, especially as they could also replace them at will.
Furthermore, it isn't clear how the multiple counties "negotiate" and elect the regional commissioners since there is no existing regional bodies to do that.
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