Blog
Another Local Government Power Grab
September 14, 2010
The federal government doesn’t have a monopoly on ridiculous power grabs, or the inclination to ignore the expressed will of the people. Here is a perfect example from my hometown.
My parents live on a nice, quiet 3-acre property, out in the country of Loudoun County, Virginia. Right down the middle of their property runs a small creek- you can’t even see it from the house, it is shallow unless there are heavy rains, and sometimes dry for a good part of the summer. That creek is about to become very significant to my parents though. That creek could cost them thousands of dollars in the near future.
You see, the County Board of Supervisors (BOS) is on the verge of adopting the Chesapeake Bay Protection Ordinance for Loudoun County. What is this Ordinance? It is an expansion of the state’s Chesapeake Bay Act, which was created to protect the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay. This expansion would create buffers around bodies of water in the county, in which changes to the existing landscape cannot be made- at least not without paying thousands of extra dollars to said county. If you live in an area that the county has deemed a RPA (Resource Protection Area) a RMA (Resource Management Area) and a “possible future” RMA, the county is going to demand to know everything you do on, or to, your property.
What kind of “changes” must be approved? Everything from adding a deck, to cutting down a tree (they may tell you to just prune it instead), to how much grass your farm animals can consume. That’s right folks- to cut down a tree within 100 feet of their creek, 4.5 feet or higher, with a trunk 6 inches in diameter, anyone in a RPA must submit a request, with “a plan prepared by an ISA Certified Arborist, Professional Forester with a B.S. from an accredited School of Forestry, a Landscape Architect or other registered design professional” (pg. 12 of the Draft Ordinance) to get approval. A draft of the Ordinance and more information can be found here.
What about when my parents are ready to add a small apartment for my grandmother to live in? That’s another series of studies, reports, approvals and inspections. Selling property in an RMA will be more difficult as well- the expected increase in cost of “fees” that property owners can brace for is $2,000-$7,000 each time they want to make an improvement, according to a Loudoun Taxpayers for Accountable Government video report.
All these regulation are for the purpose of maintaining, not improving, the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay- and Loudoun County is not even in the Chesapeake Bay Tidewater area.
A last public input meeting will take place next week, followed by a vote. The current expected vote is 6 in favor, and 3 opposed to the Ordinance, despite the public outcry that has already occurred. The BOS is up for re-election next year. The big question: will there be any candidates who are committed to a limited government approach? This illustrates again the need for everyone to pay attention to what your local government is doing, and for someone to be ready and willing to step in to do the job right if they won’t.
I am a homeowner in Colorado in a very small rural town, and there are hints to this effect going on around here, because this is an old silver mining town and we are on the superfund clean up list. Wich of course does not employ any of our locals. Any way my opinion is , this is my property I am paying for it and the unbelievably high taxes on it, and I will be damnd if you are going to tell me what I can and cant do with it, if the government wants it their way then they can pay my property taxes or deal with the buisness end of a pistol
To Kristen,
I find it highly upsetting that you would suggest using a pistol to protect yourself from the government!! Use a rifle! If you don’t have one you can borrow one of mine!!
Kristen, Bravo!!! The business end of a gun! LMAO
Sounds like these fools want the money!!! I live in Wayne County, NC and the citizens of a large subdivision lost their legal battle when the city wanted to annex them. Doubled their taxes and they didn’t get a darn thing in return. Go figure.
The State of Georgia has been doing this for years. It’s nothing new here. If you clear cut one acrea they can fine you up to $36.000.00 And you say it’s YOUR land!! You are only leasing it from the government until you die. If you don’t pay your taxes you’ll find out who really owns it.
Denton, Texas. In an obvious attempt to skirt recently passed legislation to protect us from emminent domain abuses, the city of Denton has formed a commission to “target” properties in and around Denton for condemnation. They set a deadline so that if your property is unoccupied for 6 months they can declare it abandoned then condemn it forcing you to fight to keep it. It doesn’t matter if you keep the taxes paid, the grass mowed, or anything else. They are trying to force people to lose their property by filing liens on it when you can’t meet their demands for “improvements”.
dont u just hate it when a bunch of morons r in charge
I don’t like Govts that rob us using absurd laws. check out the Senators that make treaties with the UN, Those CFR bastards.
It is not advisable for a City council to legislate a hardship on the citizens of a community just because they can. We all know that there are many left wing idiots in federal and state government that pass bills that are both contrary to public opinion and just plain Anti-American.
I agree with the gentleman from Colorado. We live near the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, in cattle country. We own around 10 acres with a pond, lots of deer and other wildlife. We pay what I consider to be a huge amount of real estate taxes and live in a county that would possibly try something like this. Like the genleman said, if they want to tell me what to do on our land, then let them pay our taxes.
This sounds just like the eminant domain cases that have been popping up all over the nation! It is such a shame that we can no longer
trust even our local politicians to do what is best for their townspeople! What is wrong with all these so called “representatives”
that are so “money hungry” and willing to line their pockets any way they think they can get away with it? People, if we legal AMERICAN
citizens start standing up against all this corruption from our hometown “politicians” to our state “politicians” and especially
The NATIONAL “politicians” we are going to loose this country to the WRONG people. We MUST fight this corruption wherever we find
it! May God Bless us each and every one who is trying to expose the take over of our country!
My prayer has been: God in Heaven, PLEASE bring to us a strong leader to lead us out of this mess we have created by turning away
from You! Let him/her be of good moral chracter, a leader that is grounded in his Christian faith and follows Your Word in all things, respect for our Constitution and for
the forefathers who wrote The Constitution, a leader that believes a persons word or hand-shake is as binding as a legal
document, a strong leader that is not afraid to do whatever it takes to defend this GREAT NATION AND ITS PEOPLE! Lord, You see what a mess we have allowed ourselves to get into
so PLEASE give that strong new leader the courage, strength and conviction to come forward so we can begin our journey back to the foundations on which this Nation was founded!
AMEN AND AMEN!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!
I cannot believe that the Democrats do not want freedom in America- it is just not believable! What sre they thinking??!!!
Yes it is past time that republicans got as pi76ed as the time when the democrats were hiding to COUNT the little TAGS on the votes and FINALLY the republicans got pi&^ed!! PAST TIME AGAIN!!!!
we have the Mountain Protection Act in NE Georgia that is so restrictive we are wondering when the county is going to tell us how many times a day we can flush our toilets!!!! We cut trees and have built a fence, tore out all of the original landscaping, painted our house the color we wanted it to be, and a few other things that are technically “breaking the rules”. Our motto is: Catch Me If You Can……this whole thing makes me want to wretch!!! It’s a huge revenue power grab by our County Board of Commissioners…they are gone at the next election…..they also just voted to build a jail and a middle school that we have NO MONEY to pay for…to the tune of a combined total of $27 MILLION dollars….our County is made up of 25 thousand people……and we are BROKE already!!!
It seems to me that the Gov. (local or Fed )is applying a forced instruction of our responsabillities to our future.When are they going to get their heads out and understand it’s OUR country and not the servants. They are too anxious to do everything they think is new and for our own good. It’s time to tell them to stop playing house, and just do THEIR task. Every day we have to do their bidding “OR ELSE”,we have to care for those they have either neglected or ignored so they can look good for people that have nothing to do with our daily grind or hardships. We stand waiting for the exsisting laws to be used wisely only to have our hopes dashed by a new law changing the rules they won’t abide by and saying there is nothing they can do about it. This is “OUR” country and check book given to us by Men and Woman that did not want this for us. It IS time to ack in a BIG way. Revolution doesn’t mean killing people is nessesary, but it does include removing ALL the parts that offend our lives.
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