People want to believe that private property restrictions affect only wealthy families with thousands of acres of land, or large corporations that don’t care about their property. In reality, however, it is often the little guy–your neighbor, your business associate or your local gas station owner–who is forced to fight a lengthy, expensive battle against federal and state authorities in order to retain his Constitutional right to freely own or use his property.
Many of these small private property owners will be on hand, along with several of the nation’s leading property rights experts, to discuss onerous private property restrictions at a conference in Albany early next year.
The Third Annual New York State Conference on Property Rights, to be held on January 17, will feature discussion and debate on a variety of contentious land-use issues affecting New York State, including the infringement of government regulation on the rights of private landowners and property takings in Adirondack Park and the Long Island Pine Barrens. The program, entitled “Real People–Their Private Property Under Attack,” will begin at 8:15 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Turf, Wolf Road, Colonie.
James Burling, senior counsel for the Pacific Legal Foundation in California, will deliver the conference’s keynote address, entitled “Taking without Paying–When Zoning and Land-Use Restrictions Go Too Far.” Burling, an attorney and director of property rights at the Foundation, litigates extensively on issues involving environmental regulation and private property rights before courts across the country. A frequent contributor to legal and other publications, Burling currently is challenging each of the four New York State Court of Appeals rulings of 1997 which have placed new land use restrictions on private property owners.
A morning panel discussion will feature a group of individuals, each of whom is or has been involved in critical property rights litigation. This will be followed by a second panel, made up of attorneys and public policy experts, who will comment and advise the property owners regarding their individual cases and discuss pertinent legislation that may assist them.
The conference is sponsored the by the Property Rights Foundation of America Inc., a Stony Creek, New York non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the constitutional right to own and use private property. Cosponsors of the private property rights conference have included the Albany County Farm Bureau, Land Rights Foundation, Ulster County Federation of Sportsmen, Civil Property Rights Associates Inc., Adirondack Fairness Coalition, People for the West, New York State Taxpayers Alliance, and The Heartland Institute. The registration fee is $45. Space is limited and reservations are suggested.
Last year’s private property rights conference, entitled “New York–A Mirror of the Nation,” was tremendously successful at identifying ways to seek protection from government policies that erode the value of property. James Bovard, last year’s keynote speaker, addressed the outlandish rules of local zoning boards and the extremes of federal forfeiture impositions. In addition, a panel of attorneys discussed various lawsuits against the state, New York City, and Suffolk County challenging the state and local governments’ refusal to justly compensate private property owners for the loss of their entire rights to their land.
PF: To receive a copy of the proceedings from last year’s conference contact Carol W. LaGrasse, president of the Property Rights Foundation of America Inc., at 518/696-5748. The proceedings are also available through PolicyFax. Call 847/202-4888 and request documents #2366206 (who, 4 pages?); #2366207 (who, 1 page?); #2366208 (who?, 3 pages); #2366209 (who?, 4 pages); #2366210 (who?, 4 pages); #2366211 (who?, 3 pages); #2366212 (who?, 3 pages); #2366213 (who? 2 pages); #2366214 (who?, 4 pages); and #2366215 (who? 2 pages).
