Contact:
Peyton Knight
(202) 543-4110 or pknight@nationalcenter.org
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.