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Show i The Paper That Dares To Take A Stand Brief Study of Proposed Changes in the Control of Land Usage and Related Changes in our Political and Economic Systems. With a Defense of the Private Management of Private Property PART I Section 1 The New Mood? In the summer of 1972 the Citizens Advisory Committee on Environmental Control created the Task Force on Land Use and Urban Growth. This committee undertook to rethink the rights and responsibilities that accompany property ownership. They made far reaching recommendations affecting historic preservation, open space protection, zoning, control of growth and virtually The every aspect of land use. results of their study were reported on May 24. 1973. Some of their suggestions were as follows: 1. Recognition of a new mood" in America. This means an awakening to the public rights to all land. The market value approach discriminates against the poor and deprives the future of its heritage of open space and scenic beauty. 2. Regulation of growth by government rather than market systems. 3. Agricultural and natural areas must be "protected for public use". people who won the land. They assume that no one is presently planning the use of the land, or if they are. the planning is for selfish reasons and not in the best interest of society; therefore, planning must be done by an agency of the government, the assumption being that this agency can dictate a more efficient use of the land to provide for the needs of the people. The Benton County Farm Bureau has prepared a report which challenges that assumption, contending that landowners carefully plan for the use of their land. Landowners. desirous of using their land for their own gain, can succeed only as they carefully plan the use of their land to efficiently provide the goods or services that people want. These wants, and their order of preference, are expressed in the market price, which is the guide to If landowners don't producers. supply the things people want, they most certainly will not make a profit. We arc indeed fortunate that the free market system rewards those people best who serve society best. This statement was made by a farm group, but is just as applicable to urban areas. What has not been realized by many people is that the main thrust of the land control movement is directed toward urban areas. Urban areas grow to serve human needs, and most of us want those needs to be filled in the most economical manner possible. This requires that decisions for the use of resources, including land, must be economic decisions, based on market prices. Experience has shown that the supply demand factors in the land market will determine its most efficient use to provide the things that people want, as expressed in the prices they willingly pay. There are some who say that government land control is necessary to prevent the gobbling up of a great portion of our farmland by urban sprawl. A report by the Courts should be encouraged to taking a new approach to "taking clause" (eminent domain). State Attorney Generals should assist in preparation of court cases to test traditional concept of land ownership. 5. State and local laws should reflect new mood. The Task Force has no power to implement their ideas but may have a great deal of influence in the top levels of government. Since their ideas are in conflict with the time proven concept of private management of private property, the merits of the two conflicting ideas deserve the most serious conUSDA Economic Research sideration. Service shows that the 350.000 Section II Planning for Land acres of cropland lost each year to urbanization represents only about Use Since the founding of this I 10 of 1 of total U.S. cropland. nation 200 years ago. the owners For every acre lost, farmers added have planned the use of the land. about 3 acres of productive new This concept, of private land by irrigation, drainage or management of private property clearing. The advocates of land control has served our nation well, bringing us from a backward, say that because of the enundeveloped nation to our present vironmental crisis we must have condition with a high degree of in- land use control. An analysis of endividual freedom and the highest vironmental pollution will show that a very small percentage is standard of living in the world. Yet. this concept is being caused by use or misuse of land. Another reason cited for challenged by those who would disregard this outstanding record, government land use planning is to and replace it with land use plan- have orderly growth in our urban ning by an agency of the areas. The only reason for growth is to serve people's needs. If the government. is not economically The concept of private growth management of private property feasible, it can never be orderly; in needs no defense. The real fact, experience has shown that it problem is that the proponents of could best be called chaotic. cannot planners government land use planning are Government because trying to make this change in our make economic decisions income or system without ever debating the they do not count the basic issue of who should plan the pay the bills. They cannot plan for use of the land. Ours is not a ques- the economical use of land tion of having land use planning, resources to provide for societys we already have it. The question is. needs because they arc isolated shall land use planning be from the market and its discipline. transferred from the owners to an They cannot possibly keep in touch and make daily adjustments to agency of government? The proponents of land use changing market prices for all the of input and output planning say that planning is of no thousands without control, items exchanged in the hundreds of consequence which means controlling the specialized uses of the land. There 4. i : t i f i .r f i f t f '; - ! :r January 23, 1975 The Utah Independent Page 7 THE SILENT REVOLUTION A ' science of land use planning based on successful experience to give them guidance. is no Bernard Siegan. author of the book entitled Lam Use Without Zoning" and many articles on the subject, has this to say: After fifty years of zoning experience in this country, it should be clear that there are distinguished and who knowledgeable planners would disagree in many, if not most instances, to the alternatives available. Planning is unquestionably highly subjective, lacking those standards and measurements that are requisites of a scientific discipline." Without those standards and measurements, without the discipline of the market and lacking any successful experience, planners have nothing to guide them but their own utopian ideas: hence, their plans are not likely to supply peoples wants or to be economically feasible. Plans that arc not economically feasible can never promote orderly growth and could cause far reaching, harmful consequences. Some interesting points are made in this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal editorial of July I, 1974: Few politicians have been as enamored of grand designs and sweeping solutions as those in New York City. The more prominent among them often act on the assumption that the solution to urban or other problems is bold initiatives followed by even bolder initiatives when the original plans go awry. Accordingly, when the six-volu- multi-million-dol- lar master plan for the city was drawn up six years ago. it was tailor made for the 1960s faith in government's ability to solve most problems. Now most people know better. Moreover, as the current chairman of the New York City planning commission explained. 1 simply don't think that the concept of a master plan, and the vision and controls it assumes, makes any sense in a free and pluralistic society." New Yorks willingness to back off from a mistaken course is very much to its credit, and could well serve as an example to other cities." Where has comprehensive planning been successful?" So far. we have no answer; yet. we are being asked to commit the entire land resources of this nation to the government planners. It would be an act of insanity for us to comply. It is interesting to note that Russia gave up on land use planning in the agricultural sector in 1955. Many of experience decades with government control of the land by socialist countries and two decades of of many of our cities should prove beyond a measure of doubt that government has no competence in this area. re-doi- ng This Association recognizes that there is a need for some restrictions on the use of land in order to prohibit usage that is harmful to others. ' These restrictions can be best accomplished through specific laws or regulations applying to specific problems, such as health codes, pollution regulations or road standards. The proponents of government land control would restrict the freedom of all the people in order to control the undesirable actions of a few. This is an injustice that should not be tolerated. AUNT LIB and UNCLE SMARTS hv Aniette Mcljiuchlan AUNT LIB and UNCLE When the hay was dry. she drove the team of superannuated horses SMARTS were way ahead of their times... that pulled the hay rake, and made acres ofr beautiful winrows. Then came one of the best things pit...like at least thirty years. Unching hay up onto the wagon while cle Smarts was a perceptive man. Uncle Smarts sat up front holding He understood what true freedom the reins to keep the retirees from and equality are. Aunt Lib was a bolting. Occasionally. Uncle truly liberated woman, equal in Smarts would step down and pitch every way to Uncle Smarts. He let a few forkfuls, just to keep Aunt her shovel the manure out of the Lib from getting carried away. But barn whenever she wanted to. and she must have asserted every one of even when she didn't want to. inches to that her sixty-on- e Aunt Lib had the full frce.lom manperson. because he of the farm. It got so that all there seldom attempted to interfere with was left for Uncle Smarts to do was her equality. sit in the living room, puffing on his The best time of all was pipe and snorting at the war news harvest time. Aunt Lib had a coming in over the battery-powere- d glorious time shocking grain, radio. which she did equally as well as any Meanwhile. Aunt Lib grew man. With the grain all standing in in liberation and every day beautiful the shocks. equality. She got to milk the cows, threshingpersons came. Then Aunt slop the hogs and turn the cream Lib fed them tubsful of steak, fried separator, as well as shoot rats in chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, the granary. She could even catch hot fresh bread, and all kinds of and kill the chicken or turkey for homemade pies and canned things, Sunday dinner, and. glorious proving she was equal also to every equality! she got to spend all day woman. plucking, cleaning and cooking. I stayed with Aunt Lib and She did at times find it rather dif- Uncle Smarts for one summer. I. ficult to kill a chicken, as she had too. found liberation and equality. , raised them from tiny chirping 1 had in lived town. always Having things, feeding and watering them, been deprived of true equality, and seeing that they were kept although 1 had been allowed to warm. But her sense of freedom chop wood, make fires, carry out would always rear up and ashes and a few sissy things like overcome her foolish emotions, that. But when Uncle Smarts let and off came the head of the expenme operate farm machinery. I was dable bird! really living! He let me ride the Each season had its special mower behind the tractor one day treats for this pioneer liberated after he had made sure to remove woman. In the winter, she jubilanthe divider stick from the sickle tly hopped out of bed in the middle bar. It was great fun riding after of the night to chop wood and get the mower tipped, with all that nice the kitchen range going so she clover piling up under it. especially could thaw out the water in the tea- after I slipped off the seat and clung kettle so she could carry it out and there with the Pitman stick beating thaw out the pump so she could against my leg. Uncle Smarts pump water for the horses and turned around, and seeing how I cows after she had chopped a hole was enjoying my equality, grinned, in the frozen watering trough, after spit gaily over the fender, and let which she milked all fourteen cows. me finish my ride to the end of the How's that for independence? row. I couldn't put my foot to the Some of the cows, poor floor for a long time after that, but unenlightened things, resented it was a small price to pay for my Aunt Lib's cold hands, and newfound equality and freedom. truculently kicked the Uncle Smarts never got to bucket right into the gutter. push the potato cultivator after I In the springtime. Aunt Lib came. That would have been congot to ride the plow behind the big trived inequality, even though the Fordson tractor. Uncle Smarts cultivator was taller than I was. drove the tractor. After all. he was Poor Uncle had to be content with equal with women, too. And he leaning against a tree and expresreally enjoyed driving the roaring sing his frustration by puffingat his beast, especially because it af- pipe and making derisive remarks forded him his only chance to spit about my technique. But he never tobacco juice over the fender of a succumbed to chauvinism. moving vehicle. I dont believe I feel so sorry for the women Aunt Lib ever got around to of today who are trying to amend tobacco chewing or tractor-drivin- g. the United States Constitution to I know she would have get what Aunt Lib and I had been fully equal to it. but she had so because Uncle Smarts was able to many things from which to choose. control his male chauvinism. Summer was an especially (Note: The facts in the story are great time for Aunt Lib. In June true. The names have been she rode the hay mower behind the changed to protect any chauvinists tractor. involved.) six-foot-t- To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. -- J. MacDonald The cruellest lies are often told in silence. -- Robert Louis Stevenson |