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Big government Marxists can’t do busy-body central planning without a Master Plan. Here's their "bible." It’s called the American Planning Association’s “Growing Smart Legislative Handbook.”

With great reverence, we consulted the seers at the American Policy Center, a think tank headquartered in Warrenton, Va., and asked what happens if the “bible” becomes law.

“Sustainable development,” as envisioned by its proponents, “calls for changing the concept of private property, protected by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,” said the center.

The center added: “Under such a system, the federal government, backed by an army of private, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the Sierra Club will influence, if not dictate, property and other policies to the states and to local communities.”

The “bible” provides for “administrative warrants” - without probable cause - upon the complaint of a neighbor, or any third party, for bureaucrats to enter private property to investigate for noncompliance, says Wendell Cox of the Wendell Cox Consultancy in St. Louis. Violators are subject to criminal, not civil, penalties.

“The APA forfeiture proposal not only would help bureaucrats take people’s homes away, but also would undermine the wealth-creating engine that has made America the most prosperous nation in the world,” said Cox. “The Growing Smart Guidebook is a guide for increased poverty, not prosperity.”

Bureaucrats, land thieves and politicians think smart growth with its “administrative warrants” is a Christmas present to themselves. The soviets are clanging the bell: “Peasant property! Feast! Feast! Come and get it.” Of course we won’t tell these people that “general warrants” started the 1776 revolution.

Even the borscht slurping aparatchniks who wrote the “bible” admitted “its proposals may present some problems, one of which is the potential to violate the Constitution.”

Indeed, General Custer, said the Indians to the paleface, measuring his ears for awls.

We have restrictive zoning NOW, and have had for over 50 years. Zoning restrictions are what has caused sprawl. That and ponzi tax schemes which make existing suburban dwellers foot the infrastructure and development costs of new suburburbs.

The only unhypocritical stance a pro-property rights person could take is one against ALL zoning, not just the newer versions of it.

Also if people's property taxes were strictly allocated to improvements in their own community, then developers would have to foot the bill for building newer suburbs (and pass the cost onto homebuyers).