Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 - Six hundred interested and attentive residents of Elmore County filled the Wetumpka, Alabama Civic Center, for a 7:00 p.m. meeting. The meeting, sponsored by the Concerned Landowners of Elmore County (CLEC), was also attended by representatives from the Marshall County Citizens for Property Rights1 (CPR) organization. Frank Vawter, Chairman of (CLEC), moderated the informative meeting, which included a thirty-minute presentation by Don Casey, Vice-Chairman of the Alliance for Citizens Rights (ACR) and personal accounts from residents of Elmore County that have experienced property rights abuse.

Mr. Casey’s presentation, referencing the Elmore Draft Comprehensive Plan, which initially received a unanimous informal endorsement from the County Commission and the East Alabama Regional Planning Newsletter, absolutely established the fact that “smart growth”, “sustainable development” and “new urbanism” are part and parcel of the Federal Government’s pledge to institute and implement the tenets from the United Nations' “Plan of Action” adopted during the 1992 “Earth Summit”2.

One of the salient points during Mr. Casey’s presentation, which peeked the interest of the audience, was the quote from the Draft Comprehensive Plan, which demonstrated an attitude on the part of the bureaucracy – elected and unelected – that all property rights except one could be stripped from a property owner. Mr. Casey stated that: “After leaving the property owner with the right to walk on his property and pick a flower, the property owner would not have a legal right, under this criterion to sue the regulatory authority or the government entity that had violated his property rights3”.

Mr. Casey’s presentation included a comprehensive definition of “governance”, referenced in the Draft Comprehensive nine times which once obtained by the local bureaucracy would “provide the tools necessary to address developmental, economic and growth concerns4” in accordance with “public policy5”.

The cited definition of “governance” - "Governance is not government – it is the framework of rules, institutions, and practices that sets limits on the behavior of individuals, organizations and companies" - is from the United Nations' “Human Development Report” for 1999, page 8.

Personal accounts of property rights abuse included:

A description of a 17-acre parcel that, because of newly enacted subdivision regulations, could not be lawfully sold. The owner’s property is effectively rendered worthless as a marketable asset.

Citing Mr. Casey’s point, the property owner does not have a legal right to sue local officials for loss of the property’s marketability.

A planned subdivision to be built by a minority contractor for entry level homeowners where costs have rendered the project unfeasible. Why? Because new regulations require the installation of concrete gutters and curbing.

Thus, the local bureaucracy through a regulatory action can direct where, when, and how development at any level – the construction of one home or a hundred houses – will occur.

Concluding the meeting, Mr. Vawter announced that the campaign to disseminate information about property rights abuse in Elmore County would continue at the next meeting of the Concerned Landowners of Elmore County, which will be held at the Eclectic Jr. High School at 7:00 p.m., November 6th.

To view the video accounts of the two aforementioned property abuse cases go to:
www.alabamapropertyrights.org/elmorecountyvideo.htm

1. Visit the website to learn more about property rights violations in Alabama at:
http://www.marshallcountycpr.org/

2. See Section II page 1 of the Draft Elmore County Comprehensive Plan -

3. Ibid., Section I page 9

4. Ibid., Section IV page 6

5. Ibid., Section I page 1

4. Ibid., Section IV page 6

5. Ibid., Section I page 1