[Capr-announce] CAPR News January 2010

Fri Jan 29 21:49:31 PST 2010

CAPR NEWS

THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM CITIZENS’ ALLIANCE FOR PROPERTY RIGHTS

January, 2010

It’s Time To Register For 2010 CAPR Banquet!

The 3rd annual CAPR Banquet is just around the corner and it‘s time to
register.  This year’s event will take place on Saturday, March 20th at the
DoubleTree
<http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/SEASPDT-Doubletree-Guest-Suite
s-Seattle-Airport-Southcenter-Washington/index.do>  Inn in Tukwila,
Washington.  The evening will commence at 5:30 PM with a reception and
silent auction.  This is a great opportunity to meet or catch up with other
good people who believe in the sanctity of property rights.  In fact, many
past attendees have said that being “with the crowd” was the best part of
the Banquet.  The reception will be followed by another great meal at 7:00
PM with the main program afterwards.

We are very excited to have Fred Kelly Grant as our keynote speaker this
year.  Mr. Grant is with the American Stewards of Liberty, formerly known as
Stewards of the Range.  He is a brilliant attorney with a broad background
and now consults on land-use issues from his base in Idaho.  Mr. Grant is
well known in property rights circles as one of the architects of the
“coordination process” which can be used in cooperation with local
governments, school districts, water districts and the like to stop broader
land-use actions which take or impair private property.  We look forward to
hearing his perspectives.

You may register online for the event by going to the CAPR website.  For
those who feel more comfortable registering by mail, please print the
mail-in form on the attachment to this email.  There is also a Banquet flyer
file attached which you can print out and / or use it to follow the web
links included.

Don’t delay!  With only 340 seats available, we expect this to be our 3rd
sell-out.  And we want you to be there!

Eminent Domain Reform Legislation

More than a year ago, after several court setbacks regarding eminent domain
takings, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna assembled the Eminent
Domain Task Force to address needed changes in state law.  He brought
together a broad group of interested parties to study the issues and make
recommendations.  CAPR was included in that group, represented by Executive
Director Steve Hammond.  From the group, two sets of eminent domain reform
bills have been introduced in this session of the Washington State
Legislature.

Companion bills House Bill 2423 and Senate Bill 6199 would reform the
state’s Community Renewal Act (CRA).  This law allows local governments the
ability to condemn and transfer to private interests “blighted” properties.
Like the Growth Management Act, CRA gives a political majority a method to
do an “end run” around the protections in the Washington Constitution.  CRA
has been used to this end in Auburn, Bremerton and Bellingham.  Former
Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols proposed a plan to blight a large portion of the
Rainier Valley early in his administration but backed off when he realized
that kicking that many poor people out of their affordable housing wouldn’t
be politically expedient.  Similarly, the City of Renton has proposed to
blight a huge section of the Highlands area only to back off when property
rights supporters and property owners showed resistance.  There is concern
that the Renton plan will reemerge when the real estate market returns to
normal.  These bills would restrict the government’s ability to label entire
neighborhoods “blighted” in order to seize and give them to developers.

House Bill 2425 and Senate Bill 6200 would restrict the use of eminent
domain for economic development by limiting projects to specific public uses
and would prohibit condemnations for the purpose of increasing tax revenue.
If you’re aware, the latter was the situation that created the infamous Kelo
Supreme Court case.

Both sets of bills have been referred to committee for hearings but there is
concern that they will go no further.  Especially H.B. 2425 which was
referred to the committee chaired by Rep. Jamie Pedersen.  Pedersen is an
attorney for K & L Gates which represents municipalities around the state
and has expressed his refusal to hold hearings in support of eminent domain
reform.

If you feel that these bills are important, please call the following
committee chairs and tell them to hold hearings on these bills:

          Representative Geoff Simpson: (360) 786-7918  (H.B. 2423)

          Senator Darlene Fairley:  (360) 786-7662  (S.B. 6199)

          Representative Jamie Pedersen:  (360) 786-7826  (H.B. 2425)

          Senator Adam Kline:  (360) 786-7688  (S.B. 6200)

Support Jim Boyer for Jefferson Co. Commission 

Founding member and past President of the Jefferson County Chapter of CAPR,
Jim Boyer, is running for a seat on the County Commission, District 3.
Visit his website at www.JimBoyer2010.com <http://www.jimboyer2010.com/>  to
learn more and donate!  The election is in August.  Jim has been rated
“Outstanding” by CAPR.

Bill Would Cure Annexation Flaws

During the previous session, the Washington Legislature passed bill E.S.S.B.
5808 which deals with annexations of county lands by cities.  This bill was
a revision of existing legislation.  Buried within 5808 are sections which
would allow cities in certain circumstances to annex properties without a
vote of those affected!  When asked, some legislators had not read the text
of that bill and voted for it not knowing what it contained.  Alert
citizen’s, some of whom are at risk of unwanted annexations, raised the red
flag.

CAPR supporter Jerry Galland and others went to work on the problem and as a
result of their efforts House Bill 2674 has been introduced in the
Washington Legislature by Rep. Skip Priest.

To learn more, visit www.referendum72.org <http://www.referendum72.org/>  or
email Jerry at HB2674 at gmail.com to see how you can help.

It’s Easy to Follow Pending Legislation

You can follow any pending legislation before the Washington Legislature by
going to www.washingtonvotes.org <http://www.washingtonvotes.org/>  and
typing in a bill number.  The website also has search capabilities.

Read the CAPR Blog

You can read the CAPR Blog by visiting www.capr.us/wordpress.   Or visit the
CAPR website directly and click on the Blog button.

Mr. Hammond Goes to Washington

Or rather, he went.  Earlier this month, CAPR Executive Director Steve
Hammond traveled to Washington D.C. to represent CAPR at a briefing by the
American Land Rights Network on the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA) which
is pending before Congress.  ALRN holds a yearly briefing on legislation
which will affect property rights.  Attendance at the briefings is by
invitation only and CAPR has also received an invitation to the 2011 event.

The existing Clean Water Act gives control of all “navigable waters” to the
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.  Over time that control has grown beyond the
law’s original intent and the Corp now controls waters that even Huck Finn’s
raft couldn’t get to unless it was dismantled and hauled in with a truck.
Even Darwin didn’t suggest that fish would don hiking and climbing gear this
early in their evolution.

The proposed CWRA would change the wording from “navigable waters” to “all
waters”!!  This would technically give the federal government control of
even a puddle in your back yard and there is no reason to believe that they
wouldn’t use it given the current trajectory of government into our lives
and onto our properties.

The goal of the briefing was to energize an effort to contact lawmakers to
be sure that they understand what is in CWRA and to tell them that it goes
too far!

You can read Steve’s report on his trip on the CAPR Blog – see above.

King Co. Chapter Has Director Slot Available

The King Co. Chapter has an open Director’s position available.  If you are
a King Co. member of CAPR and interested in applying for this appointed
position, please contact President Rick Forschler at rick at forschler.org .  

Meetings and Events

Grant Co. Monthly Meeting

The Grant Co. Chapter holds its monthly meetings at 7:00 PM every third
Wednesday of the month at Bob’s Café located at 1807 Kittleson Rd. in Moses
Lake.  Come early for dinner and conversation.

King Co. Monthly Meeting  

Meetings of the King Co. Chapter are held on the first Thursday of the
month.  The next meeting will be held at 7:00 PM, Thursday, February 4th.
The meeting site will be the IHOP Restaurant located at 1433 NW Sammamish
Rd. in Issaquah.  Consider coming early for dinner and conversation.

Pierce Co. Monthly Meeting

The Pierce County Chapter holds its monthly meetings at 7:00 PM on the
second Thursday of every month.  The meeting location is the Paradise
Village Bowl Conference Room located at 12505 Pacific Ave. S. in Tacoma.
For more information you can send email to piercecapr at yahoo.com or call
President Wendy Birnbaum at 253-677-0612.

San Juan Monthly Meeting

The San Juan Chapter holds its monthly meeting on the first Tuesday of the
month at 6:00 PM.  The meeting is held at the San Juan Island Grange Hall.
For more info on CAPR San Juan, visit www.CAPR-SanJuan.org
<http://www.capr-sanjuan.org/> .

Donate to CAPR Online

You can now donate to CAPR online.  Go to www.capr.us <http://www.capr.us/>
(same as proprights.org) and click on the DONATE tab.  Even as a volunteer
organization, the level of funding available determines what we can
accomplish in the fight to preserve and protect property rights.  Help us
help you.  Donate!

Matching Contributions

If you work for a company, which adds matching funds to charitable
contributions, remember the CAPR Legal Fund.  All donations to the Legal
Fund are tax deductible and the additional contribution by your employer
makes leverages your contribution towards protecting your property rights.

Jeff Wright

Secretary, CAPR

E-mail:         darcors at comcast.net 

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