Anti-Property Rights Initiative Gets Boost from
Unlikely Source: Senator George Allen
Contact: Peyton Knight
(202) 543-4110 or
pknight@nationalcenter.org
For Release: August 18,
2006
Washington, D.C. - Nearly one year after the U.S.
Supreme Court's shocking Kelo v. New London decision touched off a
firestorm of bipartisan support for stronger property rights protections, some
anti-property rights groups are receiving support from a surprising source:
Senator George Allen (R-VA).
Senator Allen is the chief sponsor of
legislation that would create a massive federal "National Heritage Area" that
would stretch from Charlottesville, VA, through Frederick County, MD, and end
in Gettysburg, PA. Such areas are best described as heavily regulated
corridors where property rights may be strictly curtailed.
Allen's bill
would deputize special interest groups -- many with clear anti-property rights
agendas -- and federal employees to oversee land use policy in the corridor.
"Senator Allen often describes himself as a 'Jeffersonian'
conservative, which he defines as someone who doesn't like 'nanny, meddling,
restrictive, burdensome government,'" said Peyton Knight, director of
environmental and regulatory affairs at the National Center. "However, if you
fail to support your rhetoric with substance, you're all hat and no
cattle."
Sen. Allen's initiative in some ways resembles a pork-barrel
earmark, as it disburses funds to pre-selected preservationist interest groups.
Unfortunately, it is even worse than an earmark, as it would threaten
property rights by:
1) Creating a "management entity" to oversee land
use policy in the area composed of groups that have a record of being hostile
to property rights.
2) Directing this management entity to create an
inventory of all property it wants "preserved," "managed" or
"acquired."
3) Giving the management entity the authority to disburse
federal funds for the purpose of land acquisition and restricting land use - an
enticement for such activities.
"This is a transparent effort by
‘not in my back yard’ elitists to milk millions of dollars from the
nation's taxpayers to mandate gentrification of their rural landscape.
These bluebloods want their pretty views and bucolic fields preserved in
perpetuity at the expense of property rights, small landowners and farmers, and
taxpayers," said Robert J. Smith, a senior fellow at the National Center.
"It is remarkably similar to the exclusionary zoning for 'green space'
and 'open space' that roiled New Jersey politics and communities for a quarter
century," Smith adds. "Such policies were ruled unconstitutional by the New
Jersey Supreme Court in the Mount Laurel decisions for being economically and
racially discriminatory, and as an effort to lock out low and moderate income
families and especially people of color, blacks and Hispanics."
Mychal
Massie, national chairman of the African-American leadership network Project
21, which is affiliated with the National Center, notes the impact of Allen's
bill will be felt disproportionately.
"Senator Allen's Heritage Area
scheme is further evidence of the chasm that develops between working families
and elected representatives once they are in office," said Massie.
"Allen's measure would restrict and limit land use to all but the very
wealthiest, and would severely and unjustly handicap families and individuals
of moderate means."
Dr. Roger Pilon, director of the Cato Institute's
Center for Constitutional Studies, notes the irony that overzealous
preservationists at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello are corrupting Jefferson's
legacy, ostensibly in an effort to protect it: "They want to traduce
Jefferson's views in order to save his views."
Citizens of Virginia,
Maryland and Pennsylvania might look to property owners caught within the
boundaries of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area in Arizona to catch a
glimpse of their possible future.
The Chairman of the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Resources has filed a report explaining the
situation in Yuma. The report, which accompanies legislation designed to
amend the Yuma Heritage Area in order to protect property owners, states:
"When the Yuma Crossing Heritage Area was authorized in 2000, the
public in Yuma County did not understand the scope of the project and was
surprised by the size of the designation... Concerns were raised by citizens
about the size of the designation and the potential for additional Federal
oversight. The fear of adverse impacts on private property rights were realized
when local government agencies began to use the immense heritage area boundary
to determine zoning restrictions."
Thomas Jefferson was quite clear in
his views regarding property rights when he wrote: "The true foundation
of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and
property and in their management."
Robert J. Smith adds: "No one
supporting such plans and legislation attacking the underlying principles of a
free society can conceivably then have the hubris to attempt to wrap themselves
in the mantle of Mr. Jefferson's belief in individual liberty, or in Ronald
Reagan's inclusive conservative Republicanism."
"It dishonors 250 years
of American history and freedom-from Abraham Lincoln's genuine Hallowed Grounds
in Gettysburg to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello mountaintop," he
said.
The National Center for Public Policy Research is a non-partisan,
non-profit educational foundation based in Washington, DC, founded in
1982.
For more information on this issue, see "The Journey Through
Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area: An Example of How Pork-Barrel Politics
Can Threaten Local Rule and Property Rights," by Peyton Knight, available
online at http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA540HallowedGround.html,
or "Assertions vs. Reality: The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National
Heritage Area Act of 2006," by Peyton Knight, available online at
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA548.html.
The
National Center for Public Policy Research is a non-partisan, non-profit
educational foundation founded in 1982 and based in Washington,
D.C.
501 Capitol Court, N.E.
Washington, D.C.
20002
(202) 543-4110
Fax (202) 543-5975
E-Mail:
info@nationalcenter.org
Web:
www.nationalcenter.org
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