Posted on 06/03/2002 8:14:55 AM PDT by Jethro Tull
The Community Character Act (S.975)
-SNIP
On June 29, 1993, former President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order #12852 to create the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development is the "ruling principle" for the implementation of what former Vice President Al Gore said we must all suffer through in order to purify our nation from the horrors of the Twentieth Century’s industrial revolution. In his book, "Earth in the Balance," Gore called it a "wrenching transformation of society."
Consequently, sustainable development calls for changing the very infrastructure of the nation, away from private ownership and control of property to nothing short of a national zoning system. In such a system, the federal government, backed by an army of private, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), like the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood and the National Education Association will influence, if not dictate, policy in state government and in local communities. Locally-elected officials will no longer be the single driving force in making decisions for their communities. Most will be done behind the scenes in non-elected "sustainability councils" armed with truckloads of federal regulations, guidelines and money.
"Sustainability" – sustainable communities, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, -- is not a comprehensive approach to environmental protection. The recurring theme throughout the sustainability literature is the integration of "economic, equity, and environmental" policies. That grandiose language is translated by specific policy recommendations which use the environment as an excuse to manage the economy to achieve "social equity."
Throughout the literature, particuarly in the report from the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, terms such as "harness market forces" describes proposals to impose consumption taxes on products that "management" deems to be unsustainable. That "management" is not elected governments, rather it’s those appointed sustainability councils and their NGO friends who basically dictate policy to city councils and county commissioners.
According to sustainable development policies, air conditioning, convenience foods, single-family housing and cars are among the products that have already been determined to be unsustainable. "Equity" means forcing those who produce an income to provide for those who do not. "Environmental protection" means constraining individual freedom to accommodate "management" so it can invoke its top-down dictates for local development.
Clearly, sustainable development policies are a radical departure from America’s established form of self-government. They ignore elected representatives, abolish protections of private property rights and diminish the rights of individuals to make personal decisions. In short, sustainable development is nothing short of socialism where all decisions about how one must live in this nation are made by non-elected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., and in its satellites in state capitals and city halls.
It should come as no surprise that one can trace the roots of the sustainable development concept to the United Nations. Specifically, the blue print is a United Nation’s program called Agenda 21. It is a product of the 1992 UN Earth Summit and outlines the means for a complete restructuring of nations to fit the desired mold. Agenda 21 outlines in detail the UN’s vision of a completely managed society, dictating the process to be used for industry, agriculture, housing development and even education curriculum in the classroom. The federal government’s drive to acquire and control massive amounts of land is necessary for the full implementation of Agenda 21.
Sneaking Past The Voters
Until now, the congress has not passed specific legislation to impose sustainable development. Legislation is supposed to be openly debated and fully aired before voted upon and implemented as the law of the land. Those who are driving these policies are savvy enough to understand that if the general public fully understood sustainable development there would be very little chance of implementation.
The chosen tool thus far has been the use of the president’s pen on executive orders. Bill Clinton used that pen time and again to create sustainable policies to lock up vast amounts of land through national monuments and even to create whole programs such as the American Heritage Rivers Initiative. That one program, never voted on by Congress, brings an army of 13 federal agencies into communities to control development, remove property owners and usurp local control in communities which have heritage rivers running through them. Not a single dime for the program was appropriated by Congress. Clinton simply robbed the budgets of other approved programs while Congress took no action to stop him.
Now, without Bill Clinton in the White House to push things along behind the scenes, the sustainable development forces are driving to bring legality to the restructuring through legislative means.
The Community Character Act (S.975), and its counterpart in the House of Representatives (H.R.1433), is the legislation that will legalize enforcement of sustainable development in every community in the nation. The bill requires local governments to implement land-management plans using guidelines outlined in a federal document called the "Smart Growth Legislative Guidebook." This publication was developed with $2 million provided by the Clinton Administration to "guide" counties, cities and towns on how to "update their local zoning." The Community Character Act offers grants to communities that will pay up to 90% of the costs for localities to update their zoning - but only if they do it the way the federal government wants it done.
The guide requires localities to "promote social equity" – right out of the sustainable development game plan. That means that communities will be required to establish social programs for the poor and pay for it by creating taxes on businesses which will help force them to comply with the dictates of the "guidelines."
The Community Character Act requires localities to "conserve historic, scenic, natural and cultural resources." These are euphemisms which mean more land grabs and fewer places where humans can freely go about their daily lives. It means planned economies, restricted housing and diminished use of cars and government control of property.
The Community Character Act demands that communities "integrate local land- use plans with Federal land-use plans." That means that local wants and needs, local problems and local culture will be ignored - wiped away - as the entire nation is homogenized into one, unhappy colorless, controlled big brotherhood. The bill contains not a single mention of private-property rights protection.
-SNIP
The Community Character Act offers grants to communities that will pay up to 90% of the costs for localities to update their zoning - but only if they do it the way the federal government wants it done.
Of course, state and local governments are all too happy to play the whore. It is simply disgusting to see municipalities prostitute themselves for THEIR OWN MONEY! With REAL tax cuts, this BS would cease immediately.
Not much of a carrot - the sport uniforms, that is - but one hell of a stick!
Not over my dead body!
And this is why!
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