Protecting Private Property Rights from Regulatory Takings

Testimony of Roger Pilon
Senior Fellow and Director
Center for Constitutional Studies
Cato Institute

Before the Subcommittee on Constitution
Committee on Judiciary
United States House of Representatives

February 10, 1995

"Uncompensated regulatory takings of private property have become an immense problem across the nation. As federal, state, and local regulations have increased in number and scope, property owners have increasingly found themselves unable to use their property and unable to recover the losses that result." Go to the Source

Keep Private Lands in Private Hands Coalition

Testimony by Chuck Cushman, Coordinator

Executive Director
American Land Rights Association
(Formerly the National Inholders Association)

House Resources Committee
US House of Representatives
Honorable Don Young, Chairman
Honorable Jim Hansen, Presiding

June 12, 1999
Salt Lake City, Utah

Conservation and Reinvestment Act (HR-701)
Permanent Protection for America's Resources 2000 Act
Clinton/Gore Lands Legacy Initiative

"Yosemite National Park in California-----76 year old James Downey, a survivor of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, was threatened with condemnation in 1971 because he wanted to add a bathroom. He had no tub and had a double size septic tank and there was a covered breezeway under which the bathroom was to be built. There would be no new land coverage. The Park Service said what he was doing was an incompatible act and he would be condemned. They came back to him two weeks later after realizing their political insensitivity and said that if he would sell them his home, they would lease it back to him and then it would be OK to build his bathroom. Was the goal to stop the bathroom or buy the house?" Go to the Source

Project Summary:Fieldstone Wetland Restoration

Russell L. Kaiser - Project Manager
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District/Environmental Planning Section
911 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90017-3401

"The proposed project is to restore wetland function to the Fieldstone property, a privately held parcel in the northwest corner of the Bolsa Chica Lowlands.Residential housing, planned for Bolsa Mesa, will increase human intrusion as well as the abundance of domestic dogs and cats which prey on native birds, small mammals and reptiles. Because the Fieldstone property is owned by a land developer, the site may be developed for residential housing. If the property is developed it will lose almost all of its wildlife value and will introduce urban elements into the Bolsa Chica Lowlands." Go to the Source

To: PFUSA members, supporters and friends
From: Jeff Harris, PFUSA executive director

Ask your senators to stop CARA

Make sure your senators understand that CARA:

• Threatens private property rights – claims by CARA supporters that purchases can be made only from “willing sellers” are directly contradicted by the bill’s language.

• Threatens vested water rights

• Threatens the economic stability of county governments and vital local services for taxpayers (by removing land from local tax rolls and placing an added burden on remaining landowners).

• Authorizes funding to non-governmental organizations of the type which have fought private property rights and open access.

• Because of its enormous cost, could deplete the federal “surplus” and threaten important programs.

• Threatens to lock out not just natural resource producers, but also recreation enthusiasts, from CARA-condemned and purchased lands.