Cleaning Up His Own Backyard:
Charles Moran, Brighton Township, Michigan
It all started when Charles Moran received a phone call from a friend.
She explained to him how her plans to build a modest expansion onto her home and add a sandbox and swing for the kids had run up against a wall-a $40,000 wall of government rules and regulations. The incident prompted Moran to organize local citizens in support of a ballot initiative that would eventually restore the property rights of residents of Brighton Township, Michigan, and curtail a local government that has gone too far.
To be sure, the costly ordinance that prevented the expansion of Moran's friend's home was well-meaning. The city council put it in place after a single private developer clear-cut a large area of forest and only then approached the city for a permit. So were the requirements of the law at the time, after all.
But the tree ordinance did much more than stop developers from cutting down forests. Under the law, property owners wishing to cut down trees residing on 2.5 acres of land or greater had to first obtain a permit, and then fund the planting of a number of new trees by a government-certified nursery. In Moran's friend's case, the total cost for the new trees came to $40,000.
So Moran began to speak his mind, taking his thoughts to the township board directly. After his appeals to the board members failed to make an impact, he formed a group of citizens that launched a petition drive to place the matter on the November 2006 ballot.
"We wanted to let the voters decide whether the government could tell property owners what they could and couldn't do with their land. Why should I trust government more than the landowner?" asked Moran.
And decide they did. 70 percent of Brighton Township voters approved the initiative to suspend the tree ordinance.
In place of the broad-sweeping tree law, the township created a tree advisory board, on which Moran, a local attorney, a homemaker, and the chairwoman of the Michigan Sierra Club all sat.
"You couldn't have hand-picked a wider spectrum of views," Moran said.
The new board named Moran's friend as chairwoman, and quickly amended an existing landscaping ordinance to preserve property rights and allow for oversight on developers who planned to cut down more than 25 percent of a property's tree canopy.
"In the end, homeowners can do anything they want with their property," Moran said. "The township can protect the rural beauty of the area and has a degree of oversight when dealing with developers."
"None of this would have come to pass if we had chosen to sit on our hands and do nothing," he continued. "Good governance is not a spectator sport, and it requires people who really care about their communities to stand up and be heard."
There's an old Chinese saying: "If everyone swept their own front porch, the world would be a cleaner place." By the same token, if we each decide to remedy the government abuses in our own backyards, we can preserve the ideal of liberty overall, one small battle at a time.
UPDATE: The Sam Adams Alliance would also like to recognize Lana Theis--Charles's friend, mentioned above--for leading this effort and being a tireless advocate for accountable government in Livingston County, Michigan. Lana leads the Livingston County chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a national organization of limited government activists.
