Friday, January 16, 2009

Fighting fire with fire

Former candidate to represent HumCPR

A little more than two months after ending a hard-fought battle to represent the 2nd District on the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, former candidate Estelle Fennell is now the public face and executive director of the Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights.

Since in essence protecting property rights means blocking the efforts of the activist groups to curtail and restrict those rights by way of the HC General Plan Re-Write - Humboldt Watershed Council/Healthy Humboldt most notably - this is an interesting pick. To say the least. Could be a formidable pick.

But it is sure to put her at loggerheads with people who formerly used her as a PR conduit.

Speaking of property rights: Out of Oregon, ◼ Attorney urges counties to assert their rights in public land decisions

...Nampa-based attorney Fred Kelly Grant used to prosecute organized crime in Baltimore before he became president of Stewards of the Range, a group that helps local governments coordinate land-use actions taken by federal agencies....

The only difference between the Syndicate and the federal government, Grant quipped, is that “the Syndicate is better organized and more efficient.”...


He's talking about protecting rights via ...coordination... a more effective way for local communities to affect federal land-use decisions on public lands....

...A community writes a coordination plan ...the federal agency must be consistent with as it takes its actions. It gives local government a seat at the table...

...coordination is a tool reserved for local governments, Grant said, producer groups and environmental groups aren’t allowed to use it....

15 comments:

  1. In a sense, I'm surprised, as when I talked to the property rights coalition people at the North Country Fair, they seemed pretty far to the right. But then again, I've recently noticed a certain drift towards libertarianism in SoHum, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd say the notion that being FOR private property rights puts you 'on the right' is very indicative of what is wrong with our country right now.

    Honestly, it is an issue that crosses party lines. Do you really think that only Republican right wingers own property?

    If we can't get past this partisan divide, even on an issue so basic as this, we're in serious trouble.

    And if you allow that divide to keep you from standing up for your rights, you will hand your land over to the Mark Lovelace's of the world. You'll be regulated out of existence, all in the name of good, all in the name of providing s-e-r-v-i-c-e and e-f-f-i-c-i-e-n-c-y and 'fighting sprawl.'

    And if you have any doubt where the divide lies, and who is on what side, just watch the TPZ hearings, and watch the activist org representatives stand up and spout their talking points.

    Yeah, Estelle is going to have an interesting job here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Estelle is very bright and articulate. It will be very interesting to watch how the Humboldt County General Plan Update. Smart move, IMO.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Incomplete sentence, sorry:

    It will be very interesting to watch how the Humboldt County General Plan Update progresses.

    ReplyDelete
  5. btw, Randy (raincrow), nice blog, added to the sidebar links.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Eric's already telling Estelle not to mess with the Marina Project and Arkley. It will be interesting to see Estelle, the advocate for Bob McKee's development style which is an environmentalist's nightmare, teaming up with property owners against regulation, or more correctly property owners wanting to shift environmental protection costs onto the public at large instead of accepting it themselves as part of their development costs, e.g. Bob McKee's developments making all of Humboldt County pay for polluted creeks and dried up rivers. It would have been smarter for CPR to put a knowledgeable environmentally sensitive community land-use planner in charge in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Again, HumCPR, in my estimation, is NOT about developers.

    It IS about people who bought a house, bought some property, bought a lot, bought some land, intend to live in or build and live in a home on that land. Maybe raise some cows, sheep, goats, chickens, naybe plant some apple trees, maybe have a garden and live a self-sustaining, off the gird as much as possible lifestyle.

    It is about real people who make their house payments, house insurance payments, and utility payments.

    Who may want to add a shed, a chicken house, a barn, a greenhouse (pot or non-pot), may want to fence a pasture... who knows, they may want ot put in a pond, or a swimming pool, or a tennis court, not unheard of, you know.

    Yes, some may split off lots, in order to pay for the house, get themselves in a position where they are not a slave to a mortgage, may want to split property to allow their kids to also build a home.

    WHY this group of people has been branded as developers, simply because they are more accepting of development, is incomprehensible.

    It is controlling rhetoric of the heraldo/Lovelace/Miller stripe, trying to brand the people they can't control in order to marginalize them.

    It is very dangerous when the people you are seeking to marginalize and write off are the backbone of our successful communities and our society, the stable, hard-working people who buy, own and maintain their properties.

    ReplyDelete
  8. How does home ownership make you right wing? How does wanting to protect your property rights as a homeowner make you a right winger?

    Why is that notion "right wing"? When arguably, the majority of Humboldt county homeowners are NOT republican or right-wing in any other sense of the word.

    If you are a Democrat, does that mean your DNA changes and you are suddenly willing to hand over your rights?

    ReplyDelete
  9. No, don't get me wrong, I respect property rights completely. But during my chat with the CPR guys, I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd have slid a couple of NRA brochures into my pocket. Maybe it's just the particular guys I talked to...but actually, I like Estelle a lot and hope she makes progress.

    Thanks for the blog nod. It's brand new, so I'm still tinkering with it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Not on point but, I just read that a Mt Shasta City Councilwoman was arrested for selling marijuana!

    Complete with undercover buys, high school kids and 34 pounds of processed marijuana in her house when the cops came to arrest her.

    I'm sure it was just 215 and she was treating sick kids????

    ReplyDelete
  11. The God given rights we are born with are under attack. You all need to seek out Fred Kelly Grants clear and powerful message.HumCPR gets it and we're happy to see Estelle gets it too. Lovelace is a horror as are many on our planning comish.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am a sohum property owner. I consider myself a conservative. I am not a member of the NRA or any other so-called "right wing" groups. I was and am an Estelle supporter because she is fair and I believe she is a realist. I am very happy she will be standing up for our rights as property owners.
    I am very environmentally conscience,I do not dump diesel, I farm organically, I even drive a hybrid, but do not try to tell me I can't build on my on land. These so-called "progressives" love to shout about their rights while taking away mine.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rose, go to their list of supporters. Plenty of developers on that list. Now you can ASSUME that this is because they simply own rural property, but there is a more logical answer-

    ReplyDelete

Comments are closed for the time-being.