Read Yamhill County Circuit Court Judge John Collins' ruling - click here.

West Wind Country Estates is good to go.

That’s the conclusion John Abrams is drawing from Wednesday’s ruling by Yamhill County Circuit Court Judge John Collins that he and four other local property owners have the right to build subdivisions on land zoned for farming.

This was a ruling many people were waiting for, as it’s one of a small number of Measure 37 cases that achieved statewide prominence.

As it happens, the 19-page ruling is also the second judgement by an Oregon court this week that came down on the side of property owners whose plans were thrust into the spotlight by Measures 37 and, two years later, Measure 49.

It clears the way for the construction of as many as 150 homes in rural areas, one of which lies along McMinnville’s western boundary on property owner by Maralynn Abrams.

Friends of Yamhill County, through their attorney, said they will seriously consider appealing the decision.

In a few instances, Collins’ argument is marked by humor. In one analogy, for example, he notes that Measure 49 presented property owners with a “yellow light/green light dilemma.”

“Landowners with Measure 37 waivers were placed by Measure 49 in a position not unlike a driver approaching an intersection and observing both a yellow traffic light and a green traffic light,” he said. “Does the driver proceed ahead on authority of the green light or endeavor to stop safely as signaled by the yellow light?

There is, of course, another factor that’s emerged since 2004, when his mother applied for that first Measure 37 claim: Brutal economic conditions that have halted subdivisions elsewhere and put the housing industry in much of the country in a vice-grip.

See Thursday's News-Register for a complete report.