National Heritage Areas Interfere with Private Property Rights

CAPR is opposed to the Mountains to Sound National Heritage Area.  Mapping private property into an Heritage area to be managed or controlled by a private unelected, unaccountable entity will interfere with private property rights.  The very idea that such an area can be created in the method applied by NHAs and the Federal Government is in itself a violation of property rights.  The entity, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust,  decided what area and property is mapped and controlled, not individual property owners, who have not asked or voted for such control.  Only the Federal Congress votes on a Heritage Area. Property owners in Colorado are also opposed to a National Heritage Area proposed in their state, and a woman rancher in Colorado opposed to having her property mapped and controlled by a National Heritage Area explains her opposition well when she states " When a federal program can be designated at the will of Congress upon private property without notification or consent of the owner, it is a direct and absolute violation of private property rights as many in Congress have agreed. Furthermore, when private property owners cannot opt out of a permanent federal designation which is managed by a non-elected local entity’s plan subject to the approval of the Secretary of Interior, private property rights are violated. Opting out of “activities” within an NHA and opting out of the actual NHA designation are two very different things."

Private Property ownership has rights and responsibilities that belong to the owner.  Justice Richard Sanders of the Washington State Supreme Court stated this concept well:  Property does not have rights. People have rights. The right to enjoy property without unlawful deprivation, no less than the right to speak or the right to travel, is in truth a ‘personal’ right . . . a fundamental interdependence exists between the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. Neither could have meaning without the other.  Read more of what Justice Sanders wrote regarding property rights here: http://www.justicesanders.com/writings/proprights.html Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area has not yet been voted on or passed.  Notify your representatives of your opinion about being included in this Federally designated area.  And comment to Congressman Doc Hastings here: