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VANITY:HOA wants to buy "mitigation bank" for community streams. COE/EPA take over.
16 NOV 16 | dcbryan1

Posted on 11/16/2016 6:17:33 AM PST by DCBryan1

I went to our yearly HOA meeting last night. Some consultant with GBM Associates in Bryant, AR said that he is proposing a "Neighborhood mitigation bank" where we buy "credits" for letting the Corps of Engineers (COE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) get deeded our "wetlands", which are really 2 creeks, and dry tributaries.

The consultant was honest. He said, no federal law dictates it, just a 1983 guidance. NO promises of making money, no guarantees that COE/EPA will do anything. Fines are possibe, like if my kid catches crawfish, or throws rocks in the lake/stream.

Anyways, my wife and I are pretty darn smart, and this is the first I've heard of this. The consultant said, "think of this as carbon credits", to which I replied, "Yeah, all that did was make Al Gore and consultants rich, and planted a few crappy saplings and put it on video. $100,000.00 sent in, and a neighborhood gets $100.00 worth of crappy sapling trees.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Arkansas; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: agenda21; arkansas; bankmitigation; coe; corpsofengineers; easement; ecoterrorist; environazis; environment; environmental; epa; federallandgrab; federallandgrabbing; green; greenterrorism; greenterrorist; hoa; landgrab; mitigationbank; mitigationbankcredit; mitigationbanks; poa
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Anyways, do any of you have experiences with this? Looking to arm myself with knowledge on the pros/cons of this to my POA board members. I think they were buying the "pie in the sky" promises of future money. I told the POA that unless their is an arbitration committtee if the Feds screw up, or there is an S&P/Moodys credit report, I'm not in favor.

Thanks freepers!

1 posted on 11/16/2016 6:17:33 AM PST by DCBryan1
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To: DCBryan1

Republicans should definitely zero the EPA out of the next budget. It was Nixon’s bad idea, so the Democrats shouldn’t have any beef about that. That agency is the best argument about allowing the federal government to start regulating anything. They make sure to grow the government agency while shrinking private ownership/control over any enterprise they touch.


2 posted on 11/16/2016 6:22:31 AM PST by txrefugee
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To: DCBryan1

OMG, this is scary, where do you live if I may ask? I’m in Rogers. I heard there was a major push towards Agenda 21 in this area recently but it was defeated, I think it happened before we moved here. Looks like they may he wanting to dig in their claws piece by piece instead of the sweeping over they tried earlier.


3 posted on 11/16/2016 6:26:00 AM PST by To Hell With Poverty (When the going gets tough, Republicans have to GO PEE.)
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To: DCBryan1

And thanks for fighting this. Maybe your best argument to your neighbors is that they are ceding control of their own property and setting themselves up for fines over every little thing.


4 posted on 11/16/2016 6:27:35 AM PST by To Hell With Poverty (When the going gets tough, Republicans have to GO PEE.)
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To: DCBryan1

I think the earlier push would have effected everyone from here to Beaver Lake, if I recall correctly. Would have had major impacts on the farmers and country folk, private hunting grounds and so forth. Basically destroying the ability of people to use and develop/change their land as they see fit.


5 posted on 11/16/2016 6:31:42 AM PST by To Hell With Poverty (When the going gets tough, Republicans have to GO PEE.)
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To: DCBryan1

I would move.


6 posted on 11/16/2016 6:34:31 AM PST by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything)
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To: outofsalt
I would move.

No go. Just moved here ...sigh. First POA meeting.

7 posted on 11/16/2016 6:40:01 AM PST by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!)
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To: To Hell With Poverty
OMG, this is scary, where do you live if I may ask?72211. Brodie/Jameson Creek area.
8 posted on 11/16/2016 6:40:31 AM PST by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!)
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To: DCBryan1
Why would anyone PAY money to give up the title to part of their property?

If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to protect the wetlands, they should buy it from your POA.

9 posted on 11/16/2016 6:43:01 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Yo, bartender -- Jobu needs a refill!")
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To: DCBryan1

The consultant needs their attitude adjusted with a 2x4 out back where their screams can’t be heard.


10 posted on 11/16/2016 6:46:57 AM PST by meatloaf (I am still one irritated Vet.)
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To: Alberta's Child
Good point about buying the land. Seems like there is that pesky notice in the Third and Fourth amendments keeping government from seizing property without full remuneration.
11 posted on 11/16/2016 6:49:48 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: DCBryan1

How is this consultant compensated? I’m smelling BS no matter how frank and honest he may have come across. According to him, there are no guarantees of anything, so why do it? Sounds to me as if the HOA would be better off donating a conservation easement for tax credits, if they don’t want the land developed in the first place, to keep a pretty view, to maintain privacy or whatever.


12 posted on 11/16/2016 6:54:27 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: DCBryan1

Nose under the tent—once in place will require courts to sort out overzealous moves on their part. Probably will lower property values as buyers shy from such entanglements.

http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-Conservation_Easements_052708.html

https://www.cfact.org/2016/02/16/virginia-supreme-court-upholds-property-rights-deals-severe-blow-to-land-trusts/

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/01/21/land-trust-scams-on-rise.html

http://www.theday.com/article/20150314/NWS01/303149962


13 posted on 11/16/2016 6:57:41 AM PST by Ozark Tom
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To: DCBryan1

Fight it. They have no business in your neighborhood.


14 posted on 11/16/2016 7:00:09 AM PST by CJ Wolf (just a conspiracy theory, no facts behind the above post.)
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To: DCBryan1

So you are not exactly out in the country. With all the development around you what on earth are they thinking they’ll achieve by taking over your little development? Would a few saplings mitigate the effects of a Tractor Supply store or 10 churches along that creek?

Sounds like a power grab only. To incrementally introduce people to the concept that private property must be ceded for “the greater good.”


15 posted on 11/16/2016 7:01:30 AM PST by To Hell With Poverty (When the going gets tough, Republicans have to GO PEE.)
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To: DCBryan1

Nothing good will come of this.

Once there is “federal land” next to your development, they will come after you for ANY runoff into the “wetlands”, including fertilizer from your lawns.


16 posted on 11/16/2016 7:03:26 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: DCBryan1

The EPA already has virtual ownership of all wetlands in that they can dictate what you can do with them. Perhaps they are afraid that with the election of Trump, they will lose this and are grabbing as much control as possible now.


17 posted on 11/16/2016 7:17:09 AM PST by sportutegrl
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To: Ozark Tom; DCBryan1

Ditto what Ozark Tom said. If you give the EPA or Corps an inch of ground, you’ll be fighting them for eternity. Vote NO and encourage your neighbors to do likewise.


18 posted on 11/16/2016 7:22:36 AM PST by zeugma (I'm going to get fat from all this schadenfreude)
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To: Qiviut

Bkmk


19 posted on 11/16/2016 7:50:59 AM PST by Qiviut (In Islam you have to die for Allah. The God I worship died for me. [Franklin Graham])
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To: DCBryan1

Do not allow them to do this..I live in a community in FL where these “environmental offset” credits were pushed (no one in the community was allowed to vote or was told). SO due to this and the location of my lot I can only use approx. .3 acres of my .9 acre lot.

In my community’s case at least 2 on the HOA were paid “consulting fee” and then conveniently moved out of state.


20 posted on 11/16/2016 8:51:52 AM PST by buzz_85
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