Libertarians and Land Use Planning
Sunday, August 13, 2006
This Missoula Independent story about private property rights legislation, originally published in High Country News, hits the spot about eminent domain legislation and who's behind the property rights protection initiatives.
His name is Howie Rich. And he really couldn't care less about your neighborhood.
National libertarian groups are not just funneling big bucks into this campaign to protect a few property owners from eminent domain. They have their sights set on something much bigger—laying waste to land-use regulations used by state and local governments to protect the landscape, the environment and neighborhoods.
Their goal has received little attention, partly because of its stealth mode. But the fact that the libertarians just might pull it off makes the campaign the hottest political story in the West this year.
...John Echeverria, head of the Environmental Law and Policy Institute at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Echeverria called it “eminent domain hysteria.” “The Kelo case is presented as a caricature in the news,” ... “The property-rights advocates have exploited Kelo to advance a broader anti-government agenda.”
Libertarians and property-rights activists believe that a huge array of common government regulations on real estate, such as zoning or subdivision limits, “take” away property value. Therefore, they say, the government should compensate the owner, or back off. This extreme view of “regulatory takings” is really at the core of the campaign—not eminent domain.
And lets remove all those damn strips from the parking lots, they are taking away my right to park how I chose to.
Posted by: DANA ELLIOTT | Sunday, August 13, 2006 at 08:12 PM