CAPR's blog

Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights Statewide Legislative Alert!!! Three Bills on Eminent Domain: Each of these bills intend to better define eminent domain and prevent takings for other than true public use, each bill is specific to certain problems associated with eminent domain! Please call your legislators or the legislative hotline to support the hearing and passage all of these bills! Legislative hotline: 1.800.562.6000 SB 5188, Read original text: http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2015-16/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5188.pdf CAPR summary: Because cities have in the past used eminent domain to transfer property from one private owner to another to increase jurisdictional tax revenues.

Urgent Action! Call These Committees and ask for Hearings! CAPR members and fellow Citizens, CAPR has been lobbying and advocating for Property Rights in Olympia since the 1st day of the session! The hard work of getting bills drafted, sponsored, and assigned Bill Numbers is paying off and we now have filed 22 bills! Friends in Property Rights, 2015 holds much promise for Property Rights in Olympia! There are many bills that will uphold and respect your property rights on the table, and all they need to pass is the citizen input that CAPR members and friends are so good at providing! With your encouragement these bills could pass and liberty in your property can begin to be restored!

Friends in Property Rights, 2015 holds much promise for Property Rights in Olympia! There are many bills that will uphold and respect your property rights on the table, and all they need to pass is the citizen input that CAPR members and friends are so good at providing! Please check the CAPR bill rating page for an up to date list of bills that warrant your comments to your Senators and Representatives, with your encouragement these bills could pass and liberty in your property can begin to be restored! We are all fortunate to have legislators in place who understand and support property rights, and a polite call from CAPR members in support of bills will be encouraging to them, spurring them on to more action in protecting our rights!

Many members and friends have been looking forward to the CAPR Banquet, here is a friendly reminder of our Banquet date. The CAPR Banquet is March 14, featuring nationally respected keynote speaker William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation! CAPR will provide informative daytime workshops. Water and its many complicated uses, allocations, and challenges will be a main topic! Time for socializing and networking will be an important and fun part of this yearly event! CAPR looks forward to this gathering of Chapters, members, and friends! See you on March 14! Thank you! http://www.capr.us/capr_pp_donate.php Shopping at Amazon? With Amazon Smile, Amazon will donate to CAPR! This does not cost you extra, amazon will donate to CAPR!

This lengthy named proposed project with a title burdened with pseudo language is equally burdened with psuedo needs, science, and law. It boils down to this; do Washingtonians want to lose vast areas of Farmland and the Property Rights of all to a 1.1 Billion dollar Growth Management Scheme running wild in the guise of restoring shore-lands? To a great many citizens in Washington, the answer is a resounding NO! Their formal comments have been sent to the powers that be. The comment posted here today is especially enjoyable for its hearty, no punches pulled getting to the heart of the matter approach! Enjoy! Written Comment on Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project (PSNERP) Roger H. Mitchell, Washington I strongly oppose the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project (PSNERP) and, in my opinion, it should be irrevocably terminated immediately.

2015 Can Be CAPR's Most Productive Year! Thanks to your generosity and dedication to the cause of property rights, CAPR had an eventful 2014, CAPR and the CAPR Chapters were able to take many successful actions that could not have happened without your support! You and CAPR can build on the legal actions, public education, meetings, CAPR advertisements, interviews on radio and blogs, and communications with legislators, as CAPR continues with our work to protect and restore your property rights even more vigourously in 2015! CAPR is excited to announce the decision to engage a dedicated lobbyist to lobby and advocate for property rights! Cindy Alia has gained experience advocating for Property Rights as a very active volunteer for CAPR over the last 10 years.

2014 CAPR Legal Fund Wrap Up! 2014 - A BUSY YEAR FOR THE CAPR LEGAL FUND With Your help, this past year has turned out to be the busiest and most active for the CAPR Legal Fund since the King County Critical Areas Ordinance battle in the mid 2000’s. And with rulings expected on several Legal Fund actions, 2015 should be eventful! We are waiting for a court date to be set by the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals in our suit filed on behalf of the Mills family. The challenge was filed as a Citizens’ Lawsuit in federal court and alleges that the City of Duvall, WA has violated the Clean Water Act by losing control (dumping) of its storm water on the Mills’ property causing flooding and property damage. Duvall maintains that, yes it is using the Mills’ property as part of its storm sewer system and that it is legal in doing so. The laws suggests otherwise.

In a complicated dance between the Federal Government, Corporate Environmental Organizations, Private Property Rights, and Industry a new trend is emerging. Trade your rights for pie in the sky eco-tourism dollars. One step in the dance is species listing; as an example, the Sage Grouse was to be listed as an endangered species prompted by suits from Center for Biological Diversity and Wild Earth Guardians. Population estimates for sage grouse run from 100,000 to 500,000 birds. They range across 290,000 square miles of sage brush habitat in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Many states reacted in panic not wanting the loss of industry, jobs, and property rights that would go with this listing and opted to plan to protect the grouse through state sponsored efforts.

Suppose an environmental corporate group with an known a publicized extremist agenda were to trespass on your land because some people in the area have granted access for other traditional reasons. Suppose the goal of that trespass was to undermine your way of life and how you provide a service and make a living? This scenario is being played out in Wyoming, admittedly a huge scale, but the premise is the same at any scale throughout the west. Private property is private, and the right to grant or restrict access to private land should remain inviolate. For those who own private property and occasionally grant access to the public for particular reasons, the right to do so without fear of the results of that choice should remain in place.

Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights You Can Help CAPR With Supreme Court Challenge! Supreme Court to Review CAPR “Open Public Meetings Act” Challenge The Washington Supreme Court has announced that it will review the lower court rulings regarding the challenge brought by Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights Legal Fund against the San Juan County Commission for violations of Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). The suit brought by the San Juan chapter of CAPR alleges that the County developed its current Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) with little public input in sessions behind closed doors. Surprisingly, the County generally agrees calling the closed door sessions “committee work”!