California Citizens Take the Lead for Private Property Rights
Since the Supreme Court's infamous Kelo decision in 2005, states across the country have enacted stronger, more secure measures of protection for private property rights. Thus far, however, such reforms have skipped over the largest state in the country, prompting California citizens to take charge of the effort and leave a reluctant legislature in the dust.
The group taking the lead for comprehensive reform is The California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights, which formed three years ago in response to a private property fight in Yolo County, California.
"Yolo County attempted to seize the 17,300 acre Conaway Ranch from unwilling sellers with the support of a local Indian casino's finances," said CAPPPR president Marko Mlikotin. "The property owners were looking for the support and direction of a private property rights group or organization, and this was the beginning of the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights."
Landowners won their fight in Yolo County, but the experience shed light on the need for legislative reform dealing with private property rights. Landowners' court costs reached $2 million over the period of legal proceedings, a high cost that further underlined the need for reform.
"The California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights made it its goal to create true reformed eminent domain legislation in California," Mlikotin said.
The group's new initiative is the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act (CPOFPA), which is a constitutional amendment supported by a coalition of the CAPPPR and the California Farm Bureau Federation. It provides for meaningful private property protection for all classes of property owners, and allows the government to seize land solely for legitimate public uses. The amendment also provides for compensation when entrepreneurs lose business due to seizure of land, and does not allow the government to set the purchase price of the land.
Supporters of the measure do face some real challenges. Special interests are pushing ACA 8 in the California legislature, which the Orange County Register describes as "[a bill] that claims to stop eminent domain abuse, but it really is about stopping true eminent-domain reform." It omits certain kinds of property owners from legal protections, and many consider it a red herring that may dissuade people from voting in favor of the comprehensive reforms within CPOFPA.
However, private property rights supporters are working to gather 670,000 signatures for the CPOFPA petition, and Mlikotin is confident it will make it onto the 2008 ballot and pass.
"If our ballot measure does prevail and private property protection is achieved, then our mission at the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights is achieved, and we fulfilled what we were created by the citizens to do," Mlikotin said.
