[Capr-announce] CAPR NEWS

[Jeff Wright]

CAPR NEWS


Welcome to the first electronic addition of "CAPR News". Citizen's Alliance
for Property Rights is currently involved in a number of events and
activities important to the preservation and promotion of private property
rights.  With all that is going on, President Rodney McFarland felt that it
would be valuable keep our members and supporters informed on the latest
happenings. It is expected that CAPR NEWS will be a regular monthly
newsletter. Generally, each topic will be short and concise.  Later in this
page there will be addresses for property rights forums (websites) that you
can visit and participate in if you want to get more involved with the
issues.

REFERENDA LAWSUIT
On January 26th of this year, the Washington Supreme Court heard CAPR's
appeal in the case of "1000 Friends of Washington vs. Rodney McFarland". In
December of 2004, CAPR filed petitions for three referenda votes with King
County. The referenda would have allowed rural residents of King County to
vote on the  Critical Areas Ordinances (CAO), which had recently been
enacted by the county council. The county charter has specific language
allowing for this type of vote. In January of 2005, 1000 Friends (aka
Futurewise) challenged the filing and King County Superior court ruled that
the filing was not valid.  With that, CAPR's attorneys made a direct appeal
to the Washington State Supreme Court to hear our case. The case was heard
on the 26th at the University of Washington Law School.  We are heartened by
the fact that the Court took the case and then heard it in an expeditious
manner.  The "experts" tell us that decisions usually come down in six to
twelve months.  CAPR's Board of Directors is already making preliminary
plans to "crank up the machine" should we win back the right to vote.

PROPERTY FAIRNESS INITIATIVE
On January 24, 2006, The Washington State Farm Bureau filed an initiative
with the Secretary of State's Office that would require state and local
agencies to clearly identify how new regulations would affect property
owners and their impact on land use and property values. It is the "Property
Fairness Initiative". This filing included a draft copy of the initiative to
get the process started.  The final draft will be submitted later in
February.  It is expected to include language restoring property rights
retroactive to a date in the past, likely 1990, and possibly langauge
regarding compensation.  CAPR President Rodney McFarland and Vice President
Preston Drew have been involved in discussions regarding the language for
the initiative and CAPR will be a major partner in the initiative drive.
Collecting petition signatures and donations in support of the initiative
will be one of CAPR's main thrusts up until the filing deadline of July 7,
2006.

This initiative is potentially more improtant to local land owners than the
vote on the CAO. We urge you to get invloved in any way you can. There will
be a planning meeting on Thursday, February 23rd at 7:00 PM.  It will be
held in the large room at the Issaquah House of Pancakes, located at 1433 NW
Sammamish Rd. in Issaquah.  This is a chance to get invloved with history.
And a real chance to make a difference.

And a note here. Beware of what you may hear in the media regarding the
Property Fairness Initiative.  Groups opposing the initiative will be
spending large sums and much energy spinning this initiative as anything but
what it is.  It is appropriate that the Farm Bureau instigating and leading
this effort. It is the largest and most basic grass roots organization in
the state.  Who has a more vested interest in the land than farmer? They
have been living with injustices that some of us are just beginning to feel.
To learn more, go to www.wsfb.com.

CAPR COMMUNITY
Recently, the CAPR Board of Directors voted to shut down the electronic
discussion list.  This was done due to heavy volume and the approriateness
of some submissions. However, there are two recently started websites which
have the potential to be far superior to our old discussion list format.
They are both "forum" type formats where you go to the web address and then
decide which topics are of interest to you.  You can read message, post your
own views or get directly invloved with others.  The forums are intuitive
and easy to use.

The first forum is national in scope and covers a broad range of topics as
well as having sections devoted to each state. That address is
www.proprights.info.  The second forum is King County oriented and will
probably have topics more like the the old discussion list. That address is
www.kcproprights.proboards.com. And if you haven't been to the CAPR website
in a while, you should check it out at www.proprights.org. Our webmaster,
Norman MacLeod has produced a top rate site!

If you have any comments on this page or just want to butter up the author,
contact Jeff Wright, CAPR Secretary at darcors at comcast.net. I promise I'll
slim it down the next time.