I am against them.
Property Rights Councils are being pushed as a way to 'help' the property owner assert her/his property rights before an elected board by having the property owner first state their 'case' before an unelected board: the Property Rights Council.
As if we hadn't learned our lesson with other unelected boards and commissions designed to push us further and further away from elected officials who have to answer to us, this Property Rights Council is supposed to magically represent us and defend our rights to our city council or county board of supervisors.
A sort of priesthood interceding between the common man (you) and the holy board (elected officials).
Yes, the idea is that your board of supervisors, the one that won't listen to you now, will appoint this group of learned property rights advocates who will listen to your tale of woe, about how you're being ripped off by your city or county or state or feds, and will opine on your rights. They will solicit an opinion from the Cato Institute or some other 'think tank' and then pass that along to your council or commissioners.
WHERE DO I START? First of all, if your elected officials would be willing to appoint such a board IT WOULDN'T BE NECESSARY. Because if your elected officials were listening to you and respecting your private property rights they wouldn't need a board to tell them to listen to you and respect your private property rights. Right?
And this unelected board---they're going to get an opinion from whom? The Cato Institute? Says who? What about 6 months from now when the council changes and they go to the Natural Resources Defense Council for the opinion on your rights? Oh, you think it's going to be a requirement that some particular group give the opinions on your property rights? NO WAY.
And what about the Constitution, anyway? And the body of law? Why would you want to run through the gauntlet of yet another unelected board that's going to play favorites, winners and losers, with your rights? Who will be picked to be on this board? How much is it going to cost you in time and 'white papers' to get your rights? Who says you'll get them from this unelected board?
Who are the big-money corporate interests behind the Property Rights Councils? Are they the big property owners in Idaho who don't want fishermen walking the streams (a right that is granted to all fishermen regardless of whose property they are on)? Is it just another game where you end up losing and the fight to stop UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is sidetracked?
What is wrong with us? Why do we look to someone else to 'fix things' for us? THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET.
Your government is being run by planning departments whose staff has been trained by the American Planning Association. Demand your rights. Demand that planning consultants be de-funded. Demand that your elected officials purge your General/Comprehensive Plans of ICLEI's influence and the Sustainable Development policies pushed by the American Planning Association.
Don't expect this to be easy. 'These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from service to his country. But he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.' Thomas Paine, American Crisis, 1776
Stand strong. Support each other. Withdraw your financial support from non-profits, corporations, and individuals who advance UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development. Educate yourself and others. Kick ICLEI Out. Dump elected officials who ignore your concerns and violate your rights. Don't expect someone else to do this for you. You are in service to your country. STEP UP.