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Access permit holders maintain the shoreline, pay income
to the Hudson River - Black River Regulating District, and pay
premium local property taxes. The April Adirondack Life
article attacking the permit holders had many important errors.
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- Speech by Roger M. Sullivan from Proceedings of the
Fourth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights
(1999).
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, October 22, 2002)
The New York State Canal Corporation, National Park Service,
and the New York Parks and Conservation are very quietly garnering
support for an elaborately planned proposal with federal funding
to build an uninterrupted 26-mile trail along the active and
abandoned Champlain Canal route from Waterford through Saratoga
County, to be followed by another 22 miles through Washington
County to Whitehall. The abandoned and active sections of the
canal pass through or adjacent to private houses and backyards,
businesses, farms, and other private property, but the property
owners are not being given information.
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- Index page of information about Scenic
Byways and All American Roads—New York
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- Index page of information about Scenic
Byways and All American Roads—National
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- By Susan Allen, Adirondack Park Agency Reporter,
Speech to Seventh Annual New York Conference on Private Property
Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003)
A succession of interlocking programs and preservation plans
in northeastern New York build a juggernaut of restrictions on
private Property. Included are federal and state Scenic Byways,
Heritage Areas and watershed management.
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- By Susan Allen (PRFA, March 2007)
Official publications for the Olympic Scenic Byway in northern
New York reveal that local government resolutions to opt out
were disregarded and that the Byway promotes wilderness values
rather than local tourism facilities. The State’s
regional regulatory and zoning agency, the Adirondack Park Agency,
is making a “Corridor Management Plan”
for the tributary Scenic Byway, the “High Peaks Byway.”
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 24, 2002) A capital
gains tax credit of 25 percent was to favor landowners who sell
land or conservation easements to land trusts or government.
This “conservation” provision was hidden in Bush’s
“Faith-based Initiative.”
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Senator DeFrancisco has introduced S. 5938, a bill with
three main components to reform the state’s eminent
domain laws. First, it limits the use of eminent domain to true
public projects, such as the construction of highways, schools,
or parks.
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- Legislative Update, April 18, 2001.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse (Reprinted from N. Y.
Property Rights Clearinghouse, Summer 2003)
The Nature Conservancy, other non-profits attack New York
State Senators’ real estate tax reform bills. Washington
Post article exposes Conservancy corruption.
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- Jay H. Lehr, Ph. D., President Environmental Education
Enterprises, Inc., Ostrander, Ohio, Reprinted from the Proceedings
of the Third Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights
(PRFA, 1998)
An environmental scientist for 44 years who helped write every
piece of federal environmental legislation between 1965 and 1987,
Jay Lehr states that today’s wetlands enforcement is irrational;
that the Endangered Species Act is one of “the most terrible
pieces of legislation in the whole environmental arena”;
that pollution of our air, water, soil, and from solid waste
has been greatly curtailed; and that some issues, including radon
and ozone, are a farce.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Speech delivered to the New York
State Coalition of Property Owners and Businesses, Rochester,
N.Y., Sept. 19, 2002
Rochester’s proposed 543-page revised zoning code will
down-zone most of the sprawling city to single-family residences,
creating 8,792 non-conforming two-family homes. These and thousands
of other non-conformities the new law would create, the City’s
“Point System” related to criminal behavior of occupants,
multi-agency police searches of entire blocks of low-income residences
for building violations, and the City’s proposed automatic
abandonment rules appear to be designed to cause landlords to
forfeit their property. City-acquired abandoned properties now
generally become vacant lots with some redeveloped into a limited
number of new government-funded houses, consistent with the City’s
expressed plan to create more “open space.” The speech
also discusses relevant zoning case law and possible organizing
tactics.
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- By Lee Manchester, News Staff Writer, Lake Placid News,
February 21, 2003. (Reprinted by permission of the Lake Placid
News.)
A controversy rages over the Olympic Trail Scenic Byway. Judy
Ford, a Clintonville businesswoman, made public a letter from
the N.Y. State DOT stating that a 1991 federal law “contained
a provision prohibiting the erection of new signs adjacent to
any federally funded highways designated as scenic byways.”
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- Photos of the Skate Creek Hunting Club slated for demolition
by New York State.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2006)
Bi-partisan bills in the New York State Legislature tackle
eminent domain reform, local permit applicant uncertainty, and
uniformity of Adirondack regulations with statewide rules, as
well as economic impact of Adirondack Park Agency and DEC planning.
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- Index page of information about “smart growth.”
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Kay McClanahan, Eastover, South Carolina (Reprinted by permission
of author)
South Carolina landowners face off against Richland County’s
“Town and Country Land Use Plan” and
the National Park Service’s expansion of Congaree
Swamp National Monument to a National Park. Many Black farmers
are descendants of freed slaves who purchased their land after
the Civil War.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, July 27, 2007)
The Spitzer Administration announced on July 17 that it was
setting aside $1 million for “smart growth”
planning to revitalize the economy of the Adirondack region.
But the Adirondack region already suffers from the groundbreaking
1973 smart growth-style Adirondack Park Agency Act. The economic
difficulty of the of the 12-county Adirondack region is caused
by the State Adirondack Park Agency’s radical land
use controls and the State’s voracious appetite for
land, driving up the price of real estate beyond local means
and leaving little land for any practical use.
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- Speech by John McClaughry from Proceedings of the Second
Annual N. Y. Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA,
1996).
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- In July, the Adirondack Park Agency
Commissioners sent to a public hearing the Lake George Park Commission’s
application for a trial of the herbicide Sonar, but it was a
public hearing that was closed to the public.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, January 2008
Since 1886, the State has paid real estate taxes on its Adirondack
Forest Preserve, now amounting to three million acres contained
within the six million-acre “Blue Line”
of government and private land in northern New York, because
the State-owned lands provide a statewide benefit of, first,
watershed protection, and, additionally, more recently, environmental
preservation envisioned by statewide residents. The economic
sacrifice of the 100-plus towns and villages in the Adirondacks
has been recognized for over a century, as well. Legal action
to end these tax payments, in Dillenburg vs. State of New
York, is not justified.
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- By Madeline K. Carter, March 2006 (Printed by Permission)
This eloquent little speech confronts the commissioners of
Watauga County, North Carolina, with using psychologically controlled
Delphi Technique at community meetings to lock out the electorate
from the constitutional process.
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- Press release—December 7, 1999.
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- Photos of the St. Regis Hunting Club slated for demolition
by New York State.
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- Letter to the Editor, by Carol W. LaGrasse, Daily Gazette,
Schenectady, N.Y., December 15, 2000.
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- When local assessment records are computerized, enforcement
officers can easily use them, by Carol W. LaGrasse.
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- By W. Christopher Doss, Virginia Department of Environmental
Quality, Reprinted from Proceedings of the First Annual Conference
on Private Property Rights (PRFA, 1995)
Large corporations and developers are delighted with regulation,
because that helps cut down on competition. Chris Doss’s
important ideas include the first mention of “informed consent
for conservation easements” and “mandated review property
taxes” after regulation decreases property value.
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The Arena Complex, Atlantic Terminal Complex, and BAM
LDC Complex are part of the Downtown redevelopment plan, and
could radically change the borough of Brooklyn. Blank walls of
high rise buildings would create hostile streets. Eminent domain
might be used for private developments. Funding could instead
preserve history and rehabilitate Downtown, rather than tearing
it down.
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Describing the lawsuit assaults by the Center for Biological
Diversity and the Forest Guardians to enjoin cattle grazing on
the Chilton’s federal grazing allotments, Jim Chilton
lays bare the way that radical preservationists have hijacked
the failed Endangered Species Act for purposes that Congress
did not intend.
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- by Carol W. LaGrasse , Stony Creek Town Hall, September
26, 2001.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation
of America, Queensbury Town Hall, Queensbury, N. Y., January
10, 2005
The town board proposed radical, dead-end zoning of 42 acres
per lot for 22 percent of the land, the same as the strictest
zoning in the Adirondack Park. Section 265 of the Town Law provides
for a 3/4 vote of the town board if owners of 20 percent of the
affected land object. Low-income workers already have difficulty
finding housing, according to a 2003 statement about the success
of their open space plan by the town’s planner.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation
of America, Public Hearing, Warrensburg Town Hall, December 28,
2006
A sign law proposed by the Warrensburg Town Board was apparently
targeted at two private homes where political statements were
displayed. One target was Ted Galusha’s house on
New York State Route 9, where the wall facing southbound traffic
is almost covered by a large display against the Adirondack Park
Agency: a NO APA symbol above the URL of the Property Rights
Foundation of America, www.prfamerica.org. If enforced, the proposed
law would have been an unconstitutional infringement of speech.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, March 13, 2003)
Statement at Public Hearing of the N. Y. State Senate Committee
on Local Government and Committee on Housing, Construction, and
Community Development, at Lake Placid, N.Y. Discusses the tax
shift to ordinary property owners caused by the exemption of
non-profit organizations with often large land holdings
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- June 28, 1994
Official National Park Service statement in support of the
bill, with recommendation that “designation shall not take
effect until the Secretary of Interior approves the partnership
compact for the heritage corridor.” Asked that the bill
be amended to require, among other features, “evidence of
commitment to modify zoning regulations.”
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- PRFA, September 2005
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- By Peter J. LaGrasse, Captain, Stony Creek Emergency Squad,
& Chairman, Stony Creek Board of Assessors, DEC Meeting,
Thurman Town Hall, March 8, 2002
Harrisburg Road should be cleared through beyond Moosewood
Club and Baker’s Clearing to Wells, other roads cleared,
and a network of roads created for pickup trucks, which are what
people drive to go fishing, ATVs for recreation, emergency use
vehicles, and ambulances.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property of America, DEC
Meeting, Thurman Town Hall, March 8, 2002
Swaths of open area should be cut as fire breaks. Ancient
highways should be opened and trails widened for fire protection
vehicles. Waite Road and other old roads should be opened to
access State land. The State should reverse its anti-ATV policy.
Cemetery access should be respected. The State’s
environmental review should include the cultural and economic
impacts, not just biological aspects.
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- Robert Prentiss, Member of the New York State Assembly
(Op Ed originally printed in Spotlight, October 15, 2003)
Counties can no longer fund the soaring cost of Medicaid on
their real property tax base. The state should take over local
medicaid costs within five years, no new unfunded Medicaid mandates
should be allowed, and a Medicaid fraud bounty should be created.
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- PRFA, Summer 2004
Sen. John J. Bonacic (Rep., New Paltz) is proposing an Upper
Delaware Greenway modeled after the State’s Hudson
River Greenway. The Independent Landowners Association, Long
Eddy, whose president is Noel van Swol, is opposing the carrot-and-stick
regional land use control scheme.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse, (Reprinted from the New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, Summer 2003)
A bill introduced by Senator Betty Little and Assembly Member
Teresa Sayward would relieve the perpetual insecurity of Adirondack
property owners, granting them a statute of limitations for APA
enforcements, just as criminals are afforded under the American
system of law.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Viewpoints, Hamilton County News,
August 5, 2003
Nearly all town highways in upstate New York are “highways
by use.” Records have been poorly kept since the “pathmaster”
system of many highway districts in each town ended in 1908.
Justice in determining which old roads are highways is needed.
Town boards should take the responsibility for determining the
full extent of their town’s highway system.
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— By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, April 20, 2003
Now that the 71,500-acre Hancock timberlands are being offered
for sale, local officials, community leaders, and sportsmen are
determined to avoid a repeat of the Champion International deal,
where 298 hunting camps are slated for demolition to start soon
on the 139,000 acres that the State acquired in 1999 in fee simple
and conservation easements.
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- February 26, 2002
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- Index page of information about how to stop government
acquisition of land and defend the local culture and economy.
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- by Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, March 18, 2008)
The Governor should reject the privately negotiated land deal
between the DEC and The Nature Conservancy to acquire 57,699
acres of productive land that was formerly owned by Finch, Pruyn
and Co. of Glens Falls for the “forever wild”
Adirondack Forest Preserve and 73,627 acres of conservation easements,
the bulk of the rest of the Finch, Pruyn land. Adding these vast
acreages to the 3 million acres of Forest Preserve and nearly
700,000 acres of DEC conservation easements will further squeeze
the economy and future of the North Country
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- Diagram—Inside, Beyond or Entirely Separate from the
National Park System, “a global network of protected areas
to conserve representative examples of the world’s ecosystems”
reprinted from Positions on Property, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jan.
1995).
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- Sanitizing A Scruffy Farm from Another Era, Town Officials
Enforce New Suburbanites’ Distaste for Pigs, Sheep, Odor,
and Old Cars.
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-By John C. Gile, Author and Publisher, Rockford, Illinois.
Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property
Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
The National Wildlife Federation pirated John C. Gile’s
copyrighted children’s book, The First Forest,
and distributed it to 547,000 homes, libraries, and schools.
“Remember, copyright, intellectual property, is the
driving force for our nation’s economy,”
said John Gile, who is seeking Justice Department prosecution
of criminal violations of the Constitution’s copyright
provision.
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- Reprinted from N. Y. Property Rights Clearinghouse,
Vol. 8, No. 4 (PRFA, Fall 2004)
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- An article by Carol W. LaGrasse that explains TDR’s
(Transferable Development Rights) and their effect on private
property. Reprinted from “Worth Commenting,” New
York Property Rights Clearinghouse (Vol. 3., No. 2,
April - July 1996)
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- Photos of the Sunbeam Hunting Club slated for demolition
by New York State.
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- An explanation of the work of the PRFA and how you can
support it.
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- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, July 2005)
In the case City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of
New York, the U. S. Supreme Court decided on March 29, 2005,
that the Oneida Indians will have to abide by the laws of New
York State and local government within its reacquired ancestral
lands, because it waited too long to repurchase the lands and
assert sovereignty over them. The Oneidas will have to pay real
estate taxes.
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- By Roger Pilon, J. D., Ph. D., Vice President for Legal
Affairs and Director, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato
Institute, Eleventh Annual National Conference on Private Property
Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y., October 13, 2007)
Roger Pilon presents an overview of private property rights,
beginning with first principles, including a discussion of the
history of the founding documents, followed by the police power
and eminent domain power; then four scenarios of government restrictions—government
actions that reduce the value of private property, regulation
to stop nuisance, regulatory takings, and full eminent domain;
and finally the four categories of eminent domain: transfer to
the public, transfer to a private owner for public utilities
and the like, condemnation for blight reduction, and transfer
to another private party for economic development. Highlights
of court rulings illustrate how the Progressive Era led to today’s
regulatory state.
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- Lake Tahoe Planning Agency Took only a “Temporal Slice”
of the Property Interest, Planning board may impose lengthy building
moratorium.
By Carol W. LaGrasse.
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- Speech by James E. Morgan from Proceedings of the Fourth
Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (1999).
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- Speech by Jonathan Tolman from Proceedings of the Fourth
Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA,
1999).
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