The 'Property Rights' Hypocrisy

Smart Growth's opponents love taxpayer investments, decry citizen involvement

1 minute read

September 18, 2003, 10:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"Property rights" is the favored, two-word battle cry for those who want to kill promising new Smart Growth ideas. It is heard most loudly around undeveloped farmland, forest, and open space beyond settled areas, and it mostly comes from developers waiting to make a killing on land sales and construction projects in those areas, which are so valuable only because taxpayers have paid for the roads, sewers, and schools that make them possible in the first place. But when those same taxpayers want to protect their investment with reasonable laws or zoning ordinances, the developers tell the community to get lost.

Thanks to Keith Schneider

FULL STORY: The "Property Rights" Hypocrisy

Tuesday, September 16, 2003 in Michigan Land Use Institute

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