Concern: Property Rights

Amador County’s general plan consultant is at it again!

Their new draft “Goals & Policies” is loaded with land mines and potential problems for property owners and taxpayers in Amador County.

Earlier this year, many property owners attended County GPAC (General Plan Advisory Committee) meetings to protest and complain about a proposed “Agriculture Element” which was full of assaults on private property rights.

This new draft document (Preliminary General Plan Goals and Policies) gives meaningless mention of “property rights” while containing numerous provisions which would pile needless new regulations and land use controls on property owners, many of which would likely devalue their property.

Objectionable provisions in the previous Ag Element have been re-worded and sandwiched into this new document.

New anti-property rights concepts have also been added, such as “viewsheds.” We’ll translate for you: “We environmentalists and elitists will force property owners to keep maintaining their property in its currently unimproved condition so we can enjoy it.  Oh, by the way, make sure you keep paying your property taxes as well.”  Sound like socialism?  What happened to the U. S. Constitutional provision requiring government to pay for property they take?  Policies like this have been used to create extreme regulations negatively affecting the right of private property owners to use their property.

This draft also proposes potentially significant new regulation of oak trees on private lands even though a new state law on oak trees took effect January 1, 2005 (SB 1334).

We all remember the recent Tahoe fire.  The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), controlled basically by the environmentalist crowd, did not allow selective clearing of the forest to prevent the devastating fire which destroyed over 250 homes.  This draft Amador County document has no provision for allowing such selective clearing and cleaning to prevent what could otherwise result in a catastrophic wildland fire here in Amador County.

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