“A History Lesson”
- Book review by Jigs Gardner
Progress and Property Rights: From the Greeks to Magna Carta
to the Constitution, Walter F. Todd (American Institute for
Economic Research 2009, 98 pp.)
The plain, cogent style of this account of the development
in practice of the idea of property rights in the West make this
“the book to read.”
Highly recommended.
See Also
Additional Resources
“A Wake-Up Call
— Organizing for Success” Proceedings of the Fifth
Annual New York Conference on
Private Property Rights
— PRFA 2000
Order Form
“Zoning and Building Codes — New Crimes, New Power”
Positions on Property, Vol. 3, No. 2 (PRFA, May 1996)
Order Form
Websites
U.S. House of Representatives
www.house.gov
U.S. Senate
www.senate.gov
The Leadership Institute
Media Training Workshops
Effective Television Techniques Workshops
Steven P.J. Wood Building
1101 N. Highland Street
Arlington, VA 22201-2854
1-800-827-LEAD,
(703) 247-2000
John Poreba, Media Training Coordinator
www.leadershipinstitute.org
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In-Depth Information
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 “No-Growth
Zoning” - By John S. Marwell, Esq., Shamberg Marwell
Davis & Hollis, Mt. Kisco, New York, Twelfth Annual National
Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October
18, 2008)
The moratorium is the ultimate no-growth zoning tool, during
which a town can institute new planning and zoning requirements,
even after an applicant has filed for a permit. Ever-increasing
impositions include no use of land said to be wetland, wetland
setbacks, steep slopes, viewsheds, even exposed rock outcroppings.
Now, “environmental subtractions” can
remove these from density computations. Organizing and education
to expose the junk science behind new rules is essential. The
Vested Rights Bill in the New York State Legislature would protect
property owners who have submitted applications from a moratorium
and new rules.
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 “The Secret to Organizing”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation
of America, Inc. (Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.,
Position Brief, August 2008)
After citizens begin to express their anger about an issue
such as eminent domain for private development, often elected
officials will jump at the occasion to impress the public at
a public meeting. The citizen should view this as an opportunity
to bring the elected official on board and keep up the heat until
victory is won.
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- “Organize
Your Thoughts” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights
Foundation of America® Position Brief, May 2008)
When people are beset with difficulties, they often refuse
to set down exactly what is happening to them so that they can
logically convey the situation to a potential source of help.
The defense of private property rights has a much greater chance
when people apply themselves to understanding and conveying their
situation. Six rules for clear communication are illustrated
in this discussion of local siting of a wind farm and electric
transmission system.
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- “Tell
Your Story” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights
Foundation of America Research Form, February 2008)
Have you been snared by local officials after you made an
application for a site plan, subdivision, or building permit?
Did they add new regulations that weren’t in place
when you submitted your application? Please tell your story on
this form, which will help illustrate the failure of the current
land use and environmental review law, and may help change the
law.
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- “Plan to Win”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights Foundation of America®
Position Brief, April 2008)
You are faced with a challenging situation. In order to defend
private property rights, you must plan to win. Victory can only
come with a multi-front approach. First, describe your goal.
Next, objectively list all tactics that your could employ to
reach that goal. Finally select the tactics that appear feasible,
make a tentative plan, and go to work.
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- “Stop
Proposed World Heritage Sites in the U.S. - Ten Steps to Success”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, August 2007
By systematically opposing the 36 new applications for UNESCO
World Heritage Sites in the U.S., citizens can prevent the exploitation
of UNESCO influence to impose preservationist land use control
on surrounding areas. Ten steps that can bring success to local
efforts are outlined.
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- “Leveling
the Playing Field” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June
2006)
“The property owner should form a relationship with his
or her representative. The most effective citizen is the one
who has worked long and hard to participate in government, and
is well known to the elected representative.”
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- “Fear
and Trembling”- By Carol W. LaGrasse (“Worth Commenting,”
Reprinted from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse,
Vol. 10, No. 1, PRFA, Winter 2006)
Most property owners faced with the threatening experience
of dealing with DEC wetlands bureaucrats and APA officials are
so terrified that that they will not ask their elected representatives
for assistance. Anyway, representatives can not be counted on
to help property owners facing unjust environmental permit conditions
and enforcement, but, instead, are good at getting grants for
communities.
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- “Visiting
Your Representative—How To Be Heard” - By Carol
W. LaGrasse (PRFA Position Brief, March 2006)
The most effective way to influence your representative is
to visit the official at the capitol or the district office,
either as an informed individual citizen, as part of a group
visit, or as a participant in a rally or lobbying day.
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- “Write for
Property Rights — Act Now, After Kelo, A Time of
Outrage and Opportunity” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA,
January 2006)
The State Senate hearing at the Capitol left the impression
that delaying action on eminent domain could be used to diffuse
the outrage over the Kelo v. New London ruling. A revised
definition of blight might lull citizens into false security.
But Senator DeFrancisco has a bill to restore constitutional
limits to eminent domain and he and Assemblyman Brodsky have
proposed that condemnation by authorities be approved by elected
bodies.
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- “Rules
of Engagement”-By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property
Rights Foundation of America. Speech to the Ninth Annual National
Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y.,
October 22, 2005)
“First of all, fight to win. Set your goals. Speak your
issue clearly to be heard by the government and by those who
can follow you,” begins Carol LaGrasse’s
short, to-the-point summary of the basic, essential rules for
grassroots success in defending private property rights at every
level.
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 “National
Property Rights Ombudsman Legislation” - By Craig M.
Call, Utah State Property Rights Ombudsman Speech to the Ninth
Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA,
Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
The Utah Property Rights Ombudsman has successfully acted
as a neutral third party to make sure that people have straight
answers to the questions that they face in land use and eminent
domain situations involving state and local government. “I
try to make the law work better for individuals who call me,”
said Mr. Call. U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch has proposed legislation
for a federal property rights ombudsman within the Department
of Transportation. (Note: The Ombudsman has been proposed as
eminent domain legislation in the New York State Assembky and
Senate - 2006)
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- “PRFA
Holds Successful Ninth Annual National Property Rights Conference”
- PRFA, October 2005
This report describes national leaders and local activists
addressing a rapt audience of individuals gathered October 22,
2005 at the Turf Holiday Inn, Albany, N.Y., about the theme “Rules
of Engagement for Defending Our Private Property Rights.”
Bill Moshofsky, Oregonians in Action, gave the Keynote on
Oregon’s Measure 37 referendum. Four of the prominent
speakers exclusively addressed how citizens can battle the Supreme
Court’s destructive Kelo v. New London eminent
domain ruling.
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 “Organizing
Successfully Against the Sacandaga Reservoir Regulating District”-By
Guy Poulin, Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference
on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22,
2005)
Guy Poulin, a resident of Northville in Saratoga County, rallied
the shoreline owners on the Great Sacandaga Lake when the Hudson
River Black River Regulating District Commission obscurely announced
that the access permit fees would go sky high. His researched
the law controlling the fees, exposed the new scheme, which was
illegal, and aroused the property owners to action.
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- “Rise Up -
A Call to Regain Private Property Rights After Kelo v. New
London” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, (PRFA, July 2005)
Each of us should take on the task of counteracting the U.S.
Supreme Court’s Susette Kelo v. City of New London
decision. We must use our influence on local government and the
state legislature to prohibit eminent domain to take property
from one private owner to transfer it to another private person
for the purpose of economic development.
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- “Grants
Have Agendas” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA November
15, 2004
Government grants put never-ending streams of money toward
preservationist objectives that diminish private property rights.
Prime examples are National Heritage Areas, regional planning,
trails, and government land acquisition.
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- “The Freedom
of Information Request” (With Sample Letter) - By Carol
W. LaGrasse (PRFA Background Brief, December 2004)
Knowledge is the first key to success in defending private
property rights. Although based on New York and federal freedom
of information law, this article has important information applicable
anywhere in the United States.
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 “International
Property Rights and How to Win in This Country” - By
Richard Miniter, Founder and President, Brussels Institute, Brussels,
Belgium; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private
Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
Property rights are already lost in Europe, but in the United
States only a few battles have been lost. It is time to win.
Modeled after successful movements, Richard Miniter’s
ten steps to win start with recruiting a legislative champion.
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- “Utah
Property Rights Ombudsman — A National Model” -
By Craig M. Call, Property Rights Ombudsman, State of Utah, Salt
Lake City, Utah; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on
Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23,
2004)
The first property rights ombudsman in the world is a powerful
negotiator for small property owners—mainly homeowners
— facing eminent domain, land use takings and land
use ordinances imposed by state and local government.
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 “Landowners
United to Defend Private Property Rights” By Mark Nix,
Executive Director, South Carolina Landowners Association, Columbia,
South Carolina; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on
Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23,
2004)
This speech includes good advice for all property rights groups,
including: Form alliances with homeowners associations, churches,
and other groups to defend property rights. Frame the issues
to be understood. Warn people that government is “taking
away your property’s value,” instead
of about “zoning.” Get the news out to
your members at least once a month.
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 “Grassroots
Action-Changing the Way We Govern Ourselves” - By Don
Parmeter, Northern Resources Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota;
Speech to the Seventh Annual Conference on Private Property
Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 18, 2003) Watershed
planning, or basin-wide planning, mean regional land use control
of the entire country. Citizens must organize, bring in diverse
populations, strategize, figure out how to fix it, play offense,
and not give up.
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 “The
Proposed Rondout Creek Canalway Trail-Defending Property Owners”
- By Joseph Havranek, Rondout Landowners Alliance, Seventh Annual
New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October
18, 2003)
A classic of successful activism. FOIL Requests revealed that
the true intent of the local project in Rosendale and Marbletown
was a 108-mile trail linking the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.
The Rondout Landowners Alliance got the information to the people
and went on the offensive.
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 “A Property Rights
Primer — How to Educate Yourself”— By Susan Allen,
Keene Valley, N.Y. (PRFA, December 10, 2002)
Don’t rely on others. If you have been hit with
a property rights issue, “you need to become very
knowledgeable in a very great hurry.” This primer
by an expert tells you how to gather information about government
programs and land ownership without any prior background.
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 “Cutting
Edge Litigation for the Future” - Madeline Sheila Galvin,
Galvin and Morgan, Delmar, N. Y., Speech, Sixth Annual New York
Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, November 16, 2002)
Property owners must stand up again and again to bureaucrats
in the court room. Gather documents from bureaucrats by doing
Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests long before going
to court.
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- “How
Zoning was Defeated in Wetmore Township” - Featuring
recollections by Andy Rakiecki (Reprinted from New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 2002)
Local citizens defending the rural lifestyle in a Pennsylvania
town in the area of the Allegheny National Forest used a townwide
referendum to get their anti-zoning message across, 399-47.
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Maggie and Andy Rakiecki |
- A Wake-Up
Call—Organizing for Success, Proceedings of the
Fifth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights,
edited by Carol W. LaGrasse, Property Rights Foundation of America,
Inc.
National leaders and experts reveal essentials about reaching
your representative, exposing government to the light of day,
effective media work, web outreach, cable television, the successful
newsletter, keeping a group together, building coalitions, and
fund-raising—all in the context of defending freedom.
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- “Defeating
Land Designations” - Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, October
16, 2000
Using National Park Service proposal as an example, outlines
essential strategies applicable to all national land designations,
including Demanding to Know Bounds, Publicity, Washington Trips,
Letters to the Editor, Letters to Congress, Notices to Property
Owners, The Rally, and more.
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 “Organizing
Against Excessive Zoning” - Thomas A. Miller,
Founding Member, Allegany Citizens Rights Committee, Allegany,
N.Y., from Proceedings of the Third Annual New York Conference
on Private Property Rights (1998)
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