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Free-Market.Net's  F r e e d o m  A c t i o n  o f  t h e  W e e k
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited by Mary Lou Seymour. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this 
and other lists, click to: http://www.free-market.net/features/lists/

Fourth Week of June, 2002:
Speak out on federal land use planning

When a band of revolutionaries embarked upon the great 
experiment in freedom known as the United States more than 200 
years ago, the right to private property was one of the bedrock 
principles embodied by the new nation. For the first 150 years or 
so, Joe Sixpack could buy his piece of property and do whatever 
he darn well pleased with it, largely unmolested by the forces of 
government. 

Beginning in the 1920s, and continuing until today, statist national 
"land use planners" have been trying to implement nationwide land 
use planning, and turn the great experiment in freedom into another 
regulated homogenous socialist paradise. So far, they have failed 
(see "A Brief History of The National Land Use Planning 
Movement" by yours truly for more of the background on this issue).

But now ... enter the big guns... federal land use planning. There 
are two sets of legislation currently wending their way through 
Congress that will, if passed, implement nationwide comprehensive 
land use planning: the Heritage Areas Policy Act and the 
Community Character Act.

Two organizations, the American Policy Center and the Defenders 
of Property Rights, are asking for help in bringing public opinion to 
bear on these bills.

The American Policy Center, dedicated to the promotion of free 
enterprise and limited government regulations over commerce and 
individuals, reports "Heritage Areas are a new form of federal land 
use control, and H.R. 2388 will establish an easy to follow format 
for creating new ones. It is the environmentalists' dream and a 
property owner's nightmare. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, 
the land grabbers won the first round H.R. 2388 passed the House 
Resources Committee."
  
The second big gun is the "Community Character Act." The 
Community Character Act will officially make the environmental 
goal of "sustainable development" the law of the land. Currently in 
the Senate Environment Committee, The Community Character Act 
(S.975), and its counterpart in the House of Representatives 
(H.R.1433), is legislation that will legalize enforcement of 
"sustainable development" in every community in the nation. The 
bill requires local governments to implement land management 
plans using guidelines outlined in a federal document called the 
"Smart Growth Legislative Guidebook." Both versions (Senate and 
House) are in committee.

The Defenders of Property Rights, a national public interest legal 
foundation devoted exclusively to property rights protection, has 
information to help "educate state legislators, the regulated 
business community, trade associations, policy organizations and 
property rights activists, who oppose federal land use control and 
the environmental agenda of land use social engineering," links to 
the "Smart Growth Legislative Guidebook" itself, and information on 
the Constitutional implications of federal land use planning.

The American Policy Center and Defenders of Property Rights 
need our help. At this point, the main action we can take is to alert 
our friends throughout the country about the legislation and write 
letters to our Congresscritters and the newspapers. Defenders of 
Property has a sample letter about the Community Character Act; 
American Policy Center has an article on the Heritage Act which 
sets out the main points you might want to cover. Both 
organizations have one of those "write your Congresscritter" form 
pages.

To keep up with the progress of these bills, subscribe to the 
newsletter alerts available at each organization. (You can also go 
to THOMAS on the web and type in the bill number for an update, 
or to read the entire legislation -- but be prepared to either be put to 
sleep by boredom or kept awake by nightmares.)

The other thing I'd like you to do is spread the word that these 
federal bills are not just a flash in the pan, but the culmination of an 
80-year campaign for national land use planning. Those of us 
who've been watching this campaign for years and doggedly 
fighting battles with local planning commissions over 
"comprehensive planning" may understand the full extent of this 
campaign, but the average person -- and even the average elected 
official -- simply does not. When the battle is on the local level, 
activists have a chance at affecting or even killing the latest "Smart 
Growth" policy by turning out folks to pack local council meetings. 
Fighting local land use plans is one of the most effective means of 
identifying freedom lovers. Federalizing the issue would take it out 
of the realm of effective grassroots activism.

Til next week
For Freedom!

Mary Lou

===
American Policy Center Action Alert on the Heritage Areas Act:
http://www.free-market.net/rd/193504625.html

Defenders of Property Rights:
http://www.free-market.net/rd/602105792.html

THOMAS Legislative search engine:
http://www.free-market.net/rd/640990198.html

"A Brief History of the National Land Use Planning Movement," by Mary Lou Seymour:
http://www.free-market.net/rd/804730462.html

Action of the Week archive:
http://www.free-market.net/features/list-archives/activism/maillist.html






--
"Anarchism is founded on the observation that
since few men are wise enough to rule themselves,
even fewer are wise enough to rule others."

-- Edward Abbey





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