Free Republic

The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld one of the most basic principles of United States law this month.  The law has been under continual attack for the last hundred years, during the rise of the “progressive” state.A great many zoning ordinances around the country are based on “model” legislation that is pushed by central planners.  One of the stated premises in the legislation  is that anything that is not permitted is forbidden.  From a discussion of a previous zoning case in North Carolina:Virtually all zoning ordinances are based on the premise that the ordinance shall list certain land uses...

In its latest effort to protect Muslim rights in the United States the Obama Justice Department is suing an Illinois town for denying a rezoning application to convert an office building into an Islamic temple. Failing to approve plans for the Islamic worship center violates a 2000 law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit filed this week in federal court. The accused are lawmakers in Des Plaines, a Chicago suburb with a population of about 60,000. In 2013 the Des Plaines City Council voted 5-3 to reject...

Over the last four decades, if you’ve seen a World War II aircraft actually in flight, chances are pretty good that the Collings Foundation in Stow, Massachusetts had something to do with it. Wednesday, the town Planning board voted 3-to-2 that the Foundation’s living history events, tours, exhibitions and veteran roundtable discussions are not educational, and thereby denied it a permit to expand. The Building Department also issued a cease and desist order against the Foundation on March 26, 2015 prohibiting take-offs and landings from the airstrip it has maintained and flown from for 37 years.

“This is my property. There’s a couple of people making up stories of things happening here that are not happening,” de Leon told KTLA as she sat in a vehicle, small dog on her lap. “They made up stories that people are somehow having sex in a public place. First thing, it’s not public, it’s a private place. And second, that’s completely false.” ... They are particularly upset over a listing on Airbnb.com for a “Hollywood Hills Camping Retreat.” The listing, taken down following news coverage earlier this week, described the rental of a “tent” that could accommodate 10 people...

An Amish family faces eviction from their home after being found in contempt of court for refusing to comply with building codes on the grounds that doing so would violate the religious community’s ban on modern technology. At a Monday hearing, a Circuit Court judge ordered the Eau Claire County sheriff’s office to evict Amos and Vera Borntreger, a farming couple with four children under the age of six, from their home in the Old Order Amish community of Fairchild, Wisconsin.

“What better way to give a boost to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act and the remaking of American neighborhoods than to start injecting illegal immigrant populations into targeted cities and towns in the suburbs all across the country?“ That was national radio talk show superhost Rush Limbaugh commenting on a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulation, “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.” “The concept, as it is properly understood, is to change the enforcement paradigm in order to allow the Department of Housing and Urban Development to essentially decide what every neighborhood in America should look like,” Limbaugh explained....

A Bradenton family says they've been hounded by code enforcement, and they've had enough.... Brent Greer and his wife are doing a little redecorating. The new paint job is unmistakable - the front of the home is a massive flag. Brent Greer hopes it sends a message. He said, "I painted it to remind the city and all that live here that this is America. This is a free country. This is my home. This is not a shrine to Riverview Boulevard."

York County oyster farmer Anthony Bavuso’s lawsuit against his county’s special-use permit requirement will move to the York County-Poquoson Circuit Court, after the county attempted to dismiss the case. The case revolves around the question of whether York County’s zoning ordinance, which requires those who engage in agricultural or aquaculture activities to obtain a special-use permit, is in violation of the Right to Farm Act in the Code of Virginia. The Complaint was filed on Jan. 31, 2014. “We are thankful we will now find out how the Right to Farm Act can protect local farmers like us,” Bavuso said...

FAIRFAX, Va. – A plan to ban “frequent and large gatherings at neighborhood homes” is a lawsuit waiting to happen, a Fairfax County supervisor predicts.Officials will get an idea Wednesday when public-comment hearings begin in Virginia’s most populous county.“I believe the county is risking a lawsuit and/or a constitution challenge by interfering with peoples’ right to assemble,” Supervisor Pat Herrity said in a statement.The proposed zoning ordinance limits “group assembly” at residences to 49 people a day. Such gatherings “shall not occur more frequently than three times in any 40-day period.”County officials say they have received complaints about group meetings...

Last year, a landowner in rural Yavapai County, Arizona, was finally vindicated in a hearing after a prolonged legal battle with local zoning officials.  The case involved local officials who claimed that they had the power to shut down shooting on private land, because shooting was not an "approved use" in the zoning code.  The closest complaining neighbor was  miles distant from the property.  A common practice in "model" zoning codes is to invert the ordinary structure of American law, claiming that everything that is not allowed is prohibited, instead of the long recognized construct of everything that is...

"Local officials who abuse zoning authority powers to cower citizens into submission and deprive land owners of Constitutional rights in the enjoyment of their land must be subject to fines and actual damages they cause including attorney fees," Delegate Bob Marshall noted in support of his HB 1219 recently introduced in the Virginia General Assembly. Marshall introduced his bill in direct response to incidents precipitated by county officials who threatened Virginia citizen farmer Martha Boneta. Boneta gained national attention after she was cited and threatened with $5,000 per-day fines for hosting such 'menacing activities' as a birthday party for eight 10-year...

Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, has introduced a bill that would give farmers and landowners’ property rights remedies against local zoning laws. The bill is inspired by the Martha Boneta debacle last year. But unlike last year’s “Boneta Bill,” HB1219 extends beyond farmers to anyone who owns property. The bill also tackles other issues such as the constitutional rights of farmers. HB1219 says that local governments that violate constitutional rights through zoning must pay their victims the amount of the fines they sought to impose and the actual damages, including attorney fees. The bill also allows the Virginia Attorney General to...

Easier to open in Siberia than California "Under the current U.S. business climate, regulatory and tax restrictions tend to curb otherwise dynamic entrepreneurial energy," Puzder said. "We'd love to see more growth in domestic markets. Unfortunately, it's easier for our franchisees to open a restaurant in Siberia than in California." In the U.S., the company's Hardee's division is expanding in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and South Florida. Meanwhile, the Carl's Jr. division is growing in Texas and the Seattle area. Challenges to U.S. expansion Puzder named ethanol regulation, which has resulted in higher beef costs, a rising minimum wage...

Shooting in the Arizona Desert has a long history An interesting case from Arizona, where a rancher was dragged into court on the unfounded pretext that he was illegally building a shooting range on his large acreage near Prescott. From the Daily Courier: PRESCOTT - In what has become an issue pitting gun rights against land use codes, a Williamson Valley landowner had his Second Amendment rights upheld in a Tuesday hearing in Prescott. Brad DeSaye, owner of Headhunter Ranch LLC, said he never intended to build gun ranges on his properety. (sic) "The wild rumors that brought us to...

The global cabal of U.N. Agenda 21 is behind global warming, regionalism, zoning, land and water use control, wealth redistribution, weakening and eventual replacement of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, global warming, cap and trade, Smart Grid, Smart Meters, carbon taxes, high gasoline prices, global citizens, IB World Schools, Common Core nationalized education standards, biofuels, Marxist advancement across the globe, food control, water access control via the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), gun control, health control, the Arab Spring/Winter, unchecked illegal immigration, and they are unstoppable. They’ve had 100 years of preparation ahead of us. Their effort...

A Rhode Island man has filed a federal lawsuit against Pope Francis and others, claiming the frequent bell-ringing of the Catholic church across the street has disrupted his life so much, it helped precipitate the demise of his marriage. John Devaney, 64, of Narragansett, R.I., lives directly across from the picturesque St. Thomas More Catholic Church. “The bells have been going off 700 times a week, very loud volume, and it’s been going on for too long,” he told the Providence Journal in a videotaped interview. “I’m not getting any response back from the people that control the bell-ringing.” “First...

First it was bars, restaurants and office buildings. Now the front lines of the "No Smoking" battle have moved outdoors. City parks, public beaches, college campuses and other outdoor venues across the country are putting up signs telling smokers they can't light up. Outdoor smoking bans have nearly doubled in the last five years, with the tally now at nearly 2,600 and more are in the works.

The Fairfax City council voted Tuesday night to create a new term in its zoning law, “medical care facility,” delete the term “clinic” from the current definition of a doctor’s office, and require all medical care facilities to obtain a special use permit at a cost of $4,800, along with a detailed approval process and a final vote by the city council. Pro-choice activists said the move was aimed at keeping abortion clinics out of Fairfax City, including an existing clinic in the city which was trying to relocate to meet Virginia’s new hospital-style zoning standards for abortion clinics. Clinics...

International agreements to lower greenhouse gases like the Kyoto Protocol have proven to be unenforceable, but zoning laws have real teeth. Thus global warming activists have begun to work on the municipal and state level to pass zoning laws that mandate "net-zero" greenhouse gas emissions in new construction, referred to as Net-Zero or "Zero Energy Building" (ZEB) or "Zero Net Energy" (ZNE).

In a victory for advocates of private property rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that governments may owe compensation to property owners who are denied permits to develop their land. Critics said the 5-4 decision, with the conservative justices comprising the majority, will make it more difficult and costly for governments to promote development or enact environmental changes designed to help the public generally. The court sided with Coy Koontz, a Florida man who said limits imposed by the St. Johns River Water Management District on how he used his land were a "taking" subject to compensation under...