Petition to Deny Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area
- Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights
- Closed on
- Target:
- Congressmen Dan Newhouse of the State of Washington and Committee Chair Congressman Tom McClintock
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- www.capr.us
This petition is now closed, Thank you to all who signed and supported this petition and the ideal of self determination and liberty in our properties!
Individual Property Owners expect the right to self-determination through elected and accountable representatives. National Heritage Areas are mapped regions which include thousands of private properties within the borders of a Heritage Area.
National Heritage Areas are areas that are designated National Park Service Areas and are as such federally controlled areas. The National Park Service is in charge of distributing federal park tax-payer funded dollars to an unelected and unaccountable Private Trust Organization.
The Private Trust Organization distributes the federal dollars within the National Heritage Area in ways that reflect the Trust's Agendas and Goals. The Trust's agendas and goals may not reflect what is in the best interest of the private properties that are being used to create a mapped area. Individual Citizens and Property Owners expect their National Park Service dollars to be spent on caring for and maintaining actual National Parks, not on Heritage Areas.
The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust's Mission Statement is in direct conflict with the goals of many property owners, and importantly, in direct conflict with the stated goals of Heritage Areas as shown in this quote from the Trust: “While a majority of funding needs are met with site specific grants, the Greenway Trust is in need of general support funding to cover costs for volunteer recruitment, community education materials, publication production, outreach and research to determine how to preserve key land parcels, and technical support for city leaders throughout the Greenway as they seek to build sustainable communities to accommodate a growing population.”
Heritage Areas should not be tools for those who believe in their own particular methods for building sustainable communities, especially while the trust is mapping within its Heritage Area borders private properties that may adhere to differing methods for building sustainable communities and in particular in building their own methods of sustainability into their own private properties that may conflict with the agendas and goals of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.
To map private properties into a Heritage Area without the consent of the property owners is an affront to the contributions made by property owners, and to their right to self-determination within the framework of the Washington State Constitution, when the only recourse to being mapped into the heritage area is to be “given” the right to refrain from participating in any plan, project, program, or activity conducted within the Heritage Area; this right would be hard if not nearly impossible, and potentially exhaustively and prohibitively expensive to retain for an individual property owner.
The is opt out clause is of little consequence when compared to the carrot and stick coercion of the private and federal dollars that will be involved in this area that will be tempting to cash strapped local municipalities where income has already been impaired due to state and federal decision making. Imagine the influence and lack of accountability if instead of our local elected representatives representing our interests, we in these “heritage areas”, have stakeholders deciding what is in our best interest according to their own best interests and agendas, with the power through federal dollars to accomplish those agendas. The private property owner cannot exert an equal level of power.
Certainly, there remain concerns about the possible direct or indirect effects of such designations on local communities and private property, including regulatory or bureaucratic interference with private properties.
A petition to the United States Congress requesting a denial of designation of The Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Act as requested through Bill numbers HR 2900 and S 1690.
Whereas Individual Property Owners expect the right to self-determination through elected and accountable representatives.
Whereas The Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area is a mapped region extending from Seattle to beyond Ellensburg in Washington State which includes thousands of private properties within the borders of this 1.5 million acre Heritage Area.
Whereas National Heritage Areas are areas that are designated National Park Service Areas and are as such federally controlled areas where that control is handed off to a Private Trust Organization in terms of management of policy and funds.
Whereas The National Park Service and The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust are not accountable to, and not elected by those they purport to represent.
Whereas To map private properties into a Heritage Area without the consent of the property owners is an affront to the contributions made by property owners, and to their right to self-determination within the framework of the Washington State Constitution.
Whereas The only recourse to being mapped into the heritage area is to be “given” the right to refrain from participating in any plan, project, program, or activity conducted within the Heritage Area; and in fact, this right would be hard if not nearly impossible, and potentially exhaustively and prohibitively expensive to retain for an individual property owner.
Whereas The is opt out clause is of little consequence when compared to the carrot and stick coercion of the private and federal dollars that will be involved in this area that will be tempting to cash strapped local municipalities where income has already been impaired due to state and federal decision making.
Whereas The private property owner cannot exert an equal level of power relative to the influence and lack of accountability if instead of our local elected representatives, we in this “heritage area” have stakeholders deciding what is in our best interest according to their own best interests and agendas, with the power through federal dollars to accomplish those agendas.
Whereas The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust has issued a statement thus; “While a majority of funding needs are met with site specific grants, the Greenway Trust is in need of general support funding to cover costs for volunteer recruitment, community education materials, publication production, outreach and research to determine how to preserve key land parcels, and technical support for city leaders throughout the Greenway as they seek to build sustainable communities to accommodate a growing population.”
Whereas Heritage Areas should not be tools for those who believe in their own particular methods for building sustainable communities, especially while the trust has mapped within its Heritage Area borders private properties that may adhere to a variety of differing methods for building sustainable communities and in particular in building their own methods of sustainability into their own private properties that may conflict with the agendas and goals of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.
Whereas Certainly, there remain concerns about the possible direct or indirect effects of such designations on local communities and private property, including regulatory or bureaucratic interference with private properties.
Whereas Citizens of the United States and Citizens of Washington State expect their tax dollars directed to the National Park Service to be prioritized to protect, enhance, and maintain existing National Parks and not to creating Heritage Areas.
We the signators to this petition pray for relief by requesting a denial by congress of The Mountains to Sound Greenway Act, HR 2900 and S 1690.
The Petition to Deny Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area petition to Congressmen Dan Newhouse of the State of Washington and Committee Chair Congressman Tom McClintock was written by Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights and is in the category Civil Rights at GoPetition.