The League of Kentucky Property Owners
Annual Meeting
Thursday, November 4, 1999
Cash Bar/informal reception starts at 6:30 P.M.
The General Meeting begins at 7:00 P.M.
at the Triple Crown Clubhouse

Featured Guest Speaker:
Honorable Ron Paul
Member of Congress, 14th District of Texas

First elected to Congress in 1976, Dr. Ron Paul, of Surfside has long been considered the nation's leading spokesman for sound money, free markets and Constitutional Government, along with the allied ideas of personal liberty, a strong defense, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul was the "one exception to the Gang of 535", on Capitol Hill.

We can expect considerable insight into the areas of property rights, which he has also championed.

This will be a wonderful opportunity for you to initiate a friend as a new member. We will have membership information and applications at the meeting so your nominees can be accommodated and enrolled as members.

Comments to Planning & Zoning

The following comments were made to the Planning & Zoning Commission at the public meeting held September 15, 1999.

I am for the free markets and strongly support property rights. New proposals by planners in Boone County will prove disastrous for landowners in the Western portion of our County.

Portland, Oregon established an urban growth boundary in 1979. This was very unfair to landowners. Today, the value of an acre inside the boundary might be more than $10,000 whereas the value of an otherwise identical acre outside the boundary might be just a few hundred dollars. We don't want this to happen in Boone County. There is no free market when land use is dictated by government or an unelected commission, rather than by the supply and demand forces of willing buyers and sellers. There are no private property rights when we are told how we may or may not use our property. Free markets and fundamental principles of freedom are turned on their heads when we are dictated to where homes may be constructed and where land must be left "undeveloped". The moment a "green belt" is designated around a "sustainable community" the value of the designated land plummets. Who will be responsible to pay the landowners for that loss of value???

Maybe even more important, future generations are deprived of their freedom to live where they choose, and are forever forced to live with the unwise decisions of Planners. It's interesting to note that the ugly urban sprawl that is now condemned once was praised as economic expansion, what is now called "damaging the environment": was once called "highest and best" land use; what is now called "not sustainable", used to be called freedom. Suppression of Private property Rights in America (Boone County) means, We all Lose. (SPRAWL)

The open-space initiatives are solutions in search of a problem. Development is not the unorded chaos that detractors say it is. Developers are only responding to the free market. There's already Planning and Zoning in place. We do not need to restrict and discriminate against the property owners in Western Boone County.

In 1997, the League sent out a survey to property owners who owned ten or more acres in Western Boone County. Out of those that responded, 88% voted yes to the question "Should Western Boone County be allowed to grow with the rest of Boone County without further restrictions from Planning and Zoning?" We feel the results of this survey are still relevant today.

The whole idea of restrictions to "Grow Greener" is relentlessly painting over what's left of America's Red, White, and Blue.

Bernie Kunkel,
Legislation Chairperson

Strategy Conference Held to Promote "Takings"

Starting in 1993 a coalition of 15 preservationist and land use planning groups sponsored a strategy conference to promote "takings" of private property. The first meeting was held at the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) plush Laurel Ridge Center in Vienna, Virginia on October 9 and 10 in 1993. Although, billed as "a citizen activists' meeting", the secret session was closed to the public.

"Takings" are an evolving strategy to circumvent compensation--guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States to owners whose property is taken via government regulations that leave the owner with technical title to the property but stripped of his rights to use it.

These yearly conferences are part of the Environmental Grantmakers Association's (EGA) strategy to attack the property rights movement and the rising tide of anti-takings legislation and court cases such as the now famous Lucas Supreme Court case. David Lucas was recently compensated $1.2 million for a state prohibition on his right to build a house on property in an ocean front residential neighborhood. EGA strategy promoted by NWF conference literature attempts to appear "mainstream" by misrepresenting anti-takings legislation as eliminating industrial health, safety and anti-pollution laws.

Organizations co-sponsoring NWF conferences include the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, and the National Trust for Historical Preservation. The latter is a taxpayer funded quasi-public organization which has acknowledged that it wants to "broaden the support base for property regulation" and is taking the lead for the national takings coalition that lobbies state legislators.

Update: Takings Bill BR420

We are pleased to report that the Takings' Bill has been prefiled in Frankfort and it's time to write your senators and representatives asking for their support of this important bill when their next session begins in January, 2000. The League has studied this issue extensively and finds that this legislation is required to protect the property rights of our citizens and will accomplish our objectives of preserving these rights.

Below is a list of our Northern Kentucky Senators and Representatives and their addresses, or you can call the Legislative Message Line, requesting the Senator or Representative co-sponsor the legislation at 1-800-372-7181.

Senator Ernie Harris
P.O. Box 1073, Crestwood, KY 40014

Senator Richard Roeding
2534 Kearney Court, Lakeside Park, KY 41017

Senator Katie Kratz Stine
15 Cliffview, Ft. Thomas, KY 41075

Senator Jack Westwood
36 Forest Avenue, Erlanger, KY 41018

Representative Royce W. Adams
580 Bannister Avenue, Dry Ridge, KY 41035

Representative Jim Callahan
10 Colonel Pointe Drive, Wilder, KY 41076

Representative Jon Draud
9 Vernon Drive, Crestview Hills, KY 41017

Representative Joe Fischer
11 Robannette Court, Fort Thomas, KY 41075

Representative Tom Kerr
5415 Old Taylor Mill Road, Taylor Mill, KY 41015

Representative Paul H. Marcotte
10674 Palestine Drive, Union, KY 41091

Representative Thomas M. McKee
Rt 8, Box 56, Cook Pike, Cynthiana, KY 41031

Representative Jon David Reinhardt
637 W. Poplar Thicket Road, Alexandria, KY 41001

Representative Arnold Simpson
112 W. 11th Street, Covington, KY 41011

Representative Charlie Walton
1663 Brierwood Court, Florence, KY 41042

The following article was written by Rick Brueggemann in response to a recent editorial in the Kentucky Post claiming it is Planning and Zoning's duty to restrict property rights.

Remembering Our Duty

The idea of "preserving" greenspace in western Boone County has been given much attention by the press. Rural landscapes are indeed beautiful, even described as "paradise" in one article. But, from whom must we "preserve" this "paradise"? Who are we preserving it for - and at who's expense? The editorial in the Kentucky Post on October 9, is a climax in the clamor to control the property of others. Fortunately, however, we live in a Country predicated upon free enterprise and property rights.

In America, the rights of the few are protected from the desires of many, as well as those of the "press." Here in the United States, we cannot force a landowner to provide us with free scenery. The foundation of all our liberties is property rights. The founders of our great nation foresaw future encroachments. As a result, they took great pains to protect the freedoms of their posterity...us. Today, the trend of the "Al Gores" -- along with sympathizers in the media - would undo such liberties.

Because the Boone County planning commission has stated a concern for property rights, the Post claims that they "have forgotten their duty." Let's hope they haven't. But, before we can lecture them on their duty, we first must know what it is!

Elected officials are required to swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitutions of Kentucky and that of the United States. The oath is more than formality. We must demand it be obeyed, regardless of a politician's personal desires, or those of their appointees. Based on the oath of office alone, the proposed comprehensive plan must be rejected. Among other things, the plan calls for the "protection" of "appropriate" agricultural "land." While his sounds nicer than, depriving selected farmers of the legitimate uses of their land, it certainly has the same effect.

The duty of public officials could never be to circumvent the legitimate rights of property owners. To the founders of our Country, "justice effectively meant respecting private rights, especially property rights." To them, private property rights were so sacred that they ranked it on the level of protecting life itself. If it were otherwise, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wouldn't have insisted such things as, "government is instituted no less for the protection of the property than of the persons of individuals."

My friend's Mercedes may look great in my driveway, but that does not give me the right to sequester his keys. Likewise, we may enjoy the view of our neighbor's farm, but that does not justify a regulatory attempt to "preserve" it from the owner. When government is used to forcibly extract something from one person for the benefit of others, the law becomes perverted. Frederick Bastiat called this corruption "legal plunder." If we are going to avoid the perils of a perversion of the law, and the despotism that accompanies it, we had better make sure all public officials know - and follow - their duty.

It would be difficult to find a better authority on this subject than the great jurist of the 19th century, Joseph Story. He was considered an expert on the Constitution and was often quoted by the Supreme Court. So, let's listen to Justice Story as to the duty of public officials: The sacred rights of property are to be guarded at every point. I call them sacred, because, if they are unprotected, all other rights become worthless or visionary. What is personal liberty, if it does not draw after it the rights to enjoy the fruits of our own industry?...What is the privilege of a vote, if the majority of the hour may sweep away the earning of our whole lives, to ratify the rapacity of the indolent, the cunning, or the profligate, who are borne into power upon the tide of a temporary popularity?

Yes, the officials of Boone County should remember their duty!

Victory (at least for now) Growth Restriction Deleted

On October 6, 1999, the League of Kentucky Property Owners and it's many supporters quashed a proposal to study an urban service and development boundary meant to restrict development in Western Boone County. The county's Long Range/Comp Plan Committee removed language about the boundary from the draft plan. If approved, the boundary would have confined development, primarily to the eastern portion of the county. The western portion of the county would remain rural, with few public amenities.

The League opposed the restriction, saying government should not dictate what owners do with their land. Chairman Richard Knock favored the restriction's removal saying the county should do what it can to protect the rural nature of western Boone county, but not at the expense of someone else.

Members of the Sierra Club (who reside in Cincinnati) were also present. They were disappointed at the mentioned concern for property rights for Boone Countians.

The League would like to thank all it's members for their support at the meeting. We couldn't have done it without you.

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