SALEM - The state attorney general issued an opinion Tuesday that exemptions to land-use laws granted by Measure 37 cannot be simply transferred to a new owner, leaving unanswered legal questions about efforts to turn farmland into housing developments.

While some lawmakers and land use planning advocates were glad the attorney general has begun to settle questions about the law, the measure's author branded the opinion "absurd."

Under Measure 37, which was passed by voters in November, governments must waive land-use laws or pay landowners compensation if their property has lost value because of development restrictions imposed after they bought the property.

A key question has been whether those exemptions could be transferred to a new owner.

Attorney General Hardy Myers wrote an opinion for the director of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, which oversees land use, that the language of Measure 37 made the waivers "personal" to the current owner, and did not say that waivers would "run with the land."

"If the current owner conveys the property before the new use allowed by the public entity is established, then the entitlement to relief will be lost," Myers wrote in an opinion for Director Lane Shetterly.

That means property owners who have proposed housing developments under terms of Measure 37 would not be able to sell their property to developers to make improvements, but would have to hold onto the property until the changes are finished.

"If you're granted a waiver, then sell the property before that development occurs, the waiver would not be transferrable to the new property owner," said Kevin Neely, spokesman for the attorney general.

Dave Hunnicutt, who authored the measure with Oregonians in Action, said the opinion ignores the will of the voters and amounts to an attempt to ignore state law.

"That's an absurd reading of the measure that won't stand judicial scrutiny," Hunnicutt said.

The opinion did not address what steps a landowner could take to legally pass on the waivers to a new owner, such as leaving the original owner's name on the title until a development was completed or homes were sold.

Sen. Charlie Ringo, D-Beaverton, chairman of the Senate Environment and Land Use Committee, said while such "tricky transactions" may be possible, the new property owners will still face a hang-up: a non-conforming use.

Ringo said when a home, for example, is sold without a transferrable waiver, it could mean the home no longer conforms to state and local laws, making it difficult to get permits for future improvements or rebuilding a home that burned down.

Neely said that issue would have to be addressed in further opinions.