State Index

New information added on February 9, 2010

Websites Ohio State General Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) link

State News “Testimony by Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., Before the Committee on Natural Resources , U.S. House of Representatives, in Opposition to H.R. 4003, Hudson River Valley Special Resource Study Act, January 21, 2010” This vaguely worded bill proposed by Rep. Maurice Hinchey appears to propose a study of all of twelve counties abutting the Hudson River (with their population exceeding three million) from Saratoga and Washington Counties to the northern boundaries of New York City and New Jersey for inclusion as a new unit of the National Park Service. The bill is dangerous to private property rights. Park Service eminent domain excesses include Cuyahoga National Recreation Area, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and others. Tax impact, access interference, and other important potential negative impacts are discussed. More on this topic: National Park Service “The Façade of New Urbanism & the Form-Based Code” - By Lolita Buckner Inniss, J.D., L.L.M., Associate Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall School of Law, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Ohio, Twelfth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 18, 2008) Form-based code, a tool of New Urbanism, is not doing what advocates claim. It tries to create by design what was spontaneous over a century. The “collaborative” charette process, ostensibly based on the “community,” is monopolized by a small strand of people, the elite. New Urbanism tries to recreate old urbanism, but old cities like New York existed as a great range of neighborhood characters experienced by different groups of people. Old urban centers were based on wealth and inherently exclusionary. Zoning originated to protect wealthy urban interests. Zoning contributes to the decline of cities by excluding industrial workplaces from areas where workers live. More on this topic: Zoning & Building Codes — National “Small Business and Private Property Rights” - By Raymond J. Keating, Chief Economist, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, Washington, D.C. and Columnist, Newsday, Long Island, New York; Eleventh Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 13, 2007) Local zoning often is a tool of special interests to force small businesses to give up. Government uses its power of eminent domain for economic development for well-financed entities at the expense of small business. During the past 100 years, government has lost respect for private property owners when developing sports stadiums, which used to fit around private property. In addition, it should be more recognized that intellectual private property rights protect the interests of small businesses, not just “big pharma.” More on this topic: Eminent Domain — National More on this topic: Zoning & Building Codes — National “New Wave of UNESCO World Heritage Sites Proposed” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA Position Brief, June 2007) This spring, the National Park Service announced that 36 locations in the United States have been proposed for UNESCO World Heritage Sites, adding to the twenty that already are designated in this country. Such international recognition potentially threatens private property rights because preservationists could exploit the designation to stop the use of land in the region just beyond a site’s borders. More on this topic: Biosphere Reserves & World Heritage Sites “Existing and Tentative U.N. World Heritage Sites in the United States”-reprinted from Positions on Property, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Nov. 1998) (Jump to Ohio information) More on this topic: Biosphere Reserves & World Heritage Sites “Hydroelectric Dams Subject to FERC Relicensing—1998-2010” - from Positions on Property, Vol. 4, No. 1 (PRFA, Nov. 1998) (Jump to Ohio information) More on this topic: Dam Relicensing under FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) “Shaky Foundations - The Exaggerated Basis for Environmental Land-Use Controls” - 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. More on this topic: Dam Relicensing under FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) “Existing National Heritage Areas and Areas Under Federal Study” Complete List - June 1997 (PRFA, June 1997) Ohio: Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor More on this topic: Heritage Rivers and Areas “Proposed National Heritage Areas — 104th Congress — 1996” - Reprinted from “American Heritage Areas,” Positions on Property, (PRFA Jan.-Apr. 1996) Ohio: Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Area More on this topic: Heritage Rivers & Areas

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