Government Control of Private Land in New York State

New information added in June 30, 2007

Email Us “Assemblyman Prentiss Introduces Bill to Protect Property Owners from Stealth Rules” - PRFA, Summer 2004 A bill called “The Homeowner’s Detrimental Reliance Act” (A. 10445) introduced into the New York State Legislature would protect building permit applicants from being hit with citations from state and federal agencies that they never heard about after they complied with a local building permit. “1986 Federal Great Lakes Water Resources Development Act Hits Queensbury Sewer Plan” -Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, May 5, 2004)   See Also Essential Books & Publications (For further description of PRFA publications, see Publication Order Form.) The Property Owner’s Experience-New York’s Arbitrary and Excessive Environmental Regulation of Private Land and Resources, PRFA, 1998 Publication Order Form Positions on Property: From 1994 through 2000, PRFA analyzed and exposed land-use controls, pre-zoning, and acquisition plans in New York State; the capacity for environmental goals to control land without limitation; the National Park Service’s land-use controls and acquisition agendas; UNESCO Biosphere Reserves; the power of the land trusts; the Farmer’s Home Administration locking up land which could be used for agriculture; the land acquisition methods of the U. S. Forest Service in New York’s Finger Lakes; the Forest Legacy and Northern Forest Lands program; the National and American Heritage Areas; American Heritage Rivers Initiative; Zoning and Building Codes; and Conservation Easements. Publication Order Form

In-Depth Information “Unbridled Radical Preservation” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Reprinted from New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 11, No. 2, Spring 2007) New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, known as DEC, has (with the State parks office) finalized its new Open Space Conservation Plan, dated November 2006, but available only during spring 2007. The plan reveals that the State currently owns 4,327,000 acres in fee simple plus 731,000 acres in conservation easements to save “open space,” or a total of 5,058,ooo acres. All government “open space” land ownership in New York, in both fee simple and conservation easements, totals 5,486,500 acres. In 424 pages plus nine appendices, the plan describes the means of government ownership and control to preserve open space and the countless new goals to acquire and control more land. “Table 1 - Mandated Open Space Protection” — Open space land in New York State protected by government ownership, regulation, and pre-zoning regional designations according to the 2006 New York State Open Space Conservation Plan “Table 2 - Inaccurate, Confusing Data” — DEC “Forever Wild” Adirondack & Catskill Forest Preserve land as reported in NYS Open Space Conservation Plan 1991-2006 “Table 3 — The Explosion of Conservation Easements” — DEC & NYC Conservation Easements & NYS Agriculture & Markets Purchase of Development Rights (PDRs) as reported in NYS Open Space Conservation Plan through 2006 “Exponential Growth” — DEC Conservation Easements as reported in NYS Open Space Conservation Plan 1991-2006 “Gov. Pataki Vetoes Misleadingly named ‘Canned Shoot’ Bill” Upon the protests of upstate legislators, the farming community, and property rights activists, a bill to severely restrict game farming that was passed in June on the last days of the sessions of each house of the legislature, was vetoed by the Governor in August. “Laws cost proprietors their livelihood — DEC liens for fuel-tank-leak cleanup costs putting some out of business” — By Thom Randall (Post Star, Glens Falls, N.Y., August 1, 2002, page 1, reprinted by permission) After a only ten telephone calls, Post-Star reporter Thom Randall discovered five general stores in the lower Adirondacks facing DEC-imposed fuel leak cleanup costs of between $191,000 and $550,000, whether or not the current owners caused the pollution. Four of the five general stores with DEC liens, in Hadley, Starbuckville, Johnsburg, Wevertown, and Olmstedville, are closed. The State seized both the store and home of the storekeeper in Starbuckville, and the devastated owner died of a heart attack a few years later. Stony Creek Town Board Resolution—New York State DEC Unit Management Plan For the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest, Feb. 26, 2002 “Reforms to Restore Property Rights in New York State” - Presented by Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, at the Annual Convention of the New York State Libertarian Party, April 30, 2000 “Observations and Recommendations for Reform” - by Carol W. LaGrasse, The Property Owner’s Experience (PRFA, 1998) “Pataki’s Good-bye Kiss,” - by Carol W. LaGrasse, Op Ed (Jan. 1998), Published with title “As time goes on, governor grows more ‘green’,” in Capitol District Business Review (Albany, Jan. 19, 1998), and other papers in New York State and elsewhere. “The Government Squeeze on Private Property-The Stone Age of Government” - Carol W. LaGrasse, excerpted from Positions on Property, Vol. 1, No. 1 (PRFA, March 1994). This publication exposed in one place for the first time the multitude of overlapping environmental land-use controls and acquisition plans that are being put in place in New York State. Before PRFA began publishing Positions on Property, the multitude of pre-zoning and pre-acquisition land designations was largely overlooked.

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