By Nils Ribi
Nils Ribi is a Sun Valley resident and member of the Sun Valley City Council. He previously served on the Sun Valley Planning and Zoning Commission.
The ability of local government to protect your quality-of-life and your private property values from inappropriate and conflicting development next to your home is in serious jeopardy if Proposition 2 passes on Nov. 7.
Don't be fooled by Proposition 2. It is actually a combination of two separate issues, cleverly put together in a bait-and-switch scheme, and almost completely financed by out of state anti-government real estate speculators and developers.
One issue (the "bait") is to control the improper use of eminent domain, which is the government's ability to take private property from one property owner and give it to another private property owner. No one can argue with the need to control this ability and, in fact, the Idaho Legislature did just that during the last session. The backers of Proposition 2 don't want you to know this because without the eminent domain issue, they would lose their "bait."
The other issue (the "switch") in Proposition 2 is a "regulatory takings" proposal. The backers believe that by defining all land-use planning and zoning regulations as regulatory takings, they can claim that these regulations diminish the value of their land. Under this spurious claim, they want to be compensated by government for all their self-declared loss of value and possible future lost income.
Therefore, when they want to build an ag-chemical plant next to your child's school, a gravel pit next to your home, or a massive condo project that blocks all the sunlight to your home, or anything else prohibited under present or future zoning regulations, and if they were refused at the zoning level, they can make a claim for cash for their self-proclaimed losses.
Who will have to pay for this self-declared lost value under all these claims in Idaho? The local government will. And, who pays for the local government? The property tax payers: you and I through our property taxes. So, if we think our property taxes are high now, just wait until we start paying for all those self-declared claims (nearly $5 billion pending in Oregon already under a similar initiative).
In addition, our residential property values and our quality of life will go down because the zoning regulations that used to protect us from harmful and/or conflicting uses next to our homes will no longer be available to protect us when local government has to abandon the regulations because they can't pay the imaginary value of any property owner's claim.
Idaho is unique among most Western states as it has a progressive set of statewide land-use planning laws. They give local government the ability to do future planning for the local conditions while at the same time insuring that a public process is included along with a comprehensive appeal procedure and assurances that regulations do not result in an unconstitutional taking of private property. Proposition 2 will strip away most of local government's ability to make local zoning decisions and protect your property.
I would prefer to have zoning regulations determined locally by people I elect, not imposed upon me in a statewide vote financed and driven by outsiders who are based in New York City and Washington, D.C. If I don't like the regulations my locally elected officials pass in noticed public hearings, I have a choice at the next election. Under Proposition 2, we give up local control over our elected officials and their ability to implement our local comprehensive plans and the desires of the larger community, no matter who we elect locally.
Idaho, the Wood River Valley and Sun Valley are all special places because comprehensive plans and zoning codes guide development and growth. The majority of our citizens support those plans and have said so through the last 30 years of local elections. If they want to change direction, they have the freedom to elect different leaders. They don't want to give up that freedom to a statewide initiative forced on them by outside New York speculators
The backers of Proposition 2 are hoping the voters will only listen to an emotional 30-second sound bite based on the eminent domain issue (the "bait") when they vote on Proposition 2. I have to believe the voters in Idaho are a lot smarter than the backers of Prop 2 think they are.
As a friend said about Proposition 2: "A few people with wealth and power who would radically change our nation are playing us for suckers. Passage of Proposition 2 will not protect your property rights. It will place all the values of your property, tangible and intangible, at risk. It's not property right; it is property wrong."
I keep thinking about the great song by The Who: "Won't Get Fooled Again." Let's not get fooled even the first time. Vote no on Proposition 2.
