News Blog

5.23.13 – The California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights, California’s leading property rights organization, has submitted letters of opposition to the authors of five bills making their way though the California Legislature.  The bills range from reconstituting forms of Redevelopment (RDA 2.0!), to eliminating voter thresholds for the establishment of special districts, to limiting the rights of property owners in reverse condemnation proceedings.  To learn more about these bill and to read our letters of opposition, click here.

Please contact your State Legislators and ask them to vote no on these bills!  Thank you for your continued support.

5.9.13 – At taxpayers expense, the City of Escondido is attempting to devastatingly devalue a piece of private property through a ballot initiative. The initiative would change the zoning for a piece of private property from single-family units to open space, effectively disallowing the property owner from constructing new homes and providing tax revenue for important city services. What’s more, the city renewed the property’s zoning in its General Plan update just last year!

To read more about Escondido’s zoning flip-flop, click here.

5.8.13 – Alliance Director Ashley Indrieri, Executive Director of the Family Water Alliance, has been named by Assembly Member Dan Logue as the 2013 Woman of the Year for the 3rd Assembly District.  Congratulations Ashley for all your work to protect California farmland and water rights. You are well deserving of this honor!  Click here to read the article.

4.29.13 – Mortgage Resolution Partners, an investment firm headed by ex-power players in the California Democratic Party such as Willie Brown, is not quitting its attempts to sell cities on the idea of using eminent domain to seize mortgages from privately-owned securities!  The radical idea has drawn the ire of not only the Alliance, which believes that abusing eminent domain to seize investments is vehemently absurd, but from the mortgage securities industry that say this plan will result in an inability to keep mortgage markets fluid in affected municipalities!  Click here to learn more about which municipalities are considering this harebrained scheme!

4.19.13 – Local government’s appetite for more spending led to redevelopment abuse. In many cases, local government seized private property by eminent domain for dubious development projects that promised more money for bigger city budgets and salaries. In time, redevelopment was no longer a tool to improve impoverish neighborhoods, but a tool for politically connected developers. The demise of RDAs is saving CA over $5 billion a year!  Click here to read the article.  Click here to read the article.

4.12.13 – Decades after seizing some 50 homes by eminent domain for a freeway connector, it has yet to be built. In the meantime, CalTrans has been renting the homes and apparently, under terrible conditions. Tenants are complaining about them being bug infested and more.  Thankfully, a Southern California Senator has authored a bill that would force CalTrans to sell the property and get out of the “Slumload” business in Pasadena!  Click here to read the article.

4.5.13 – One of the worst kinds of eminent domain abuse is when taxpayers get fleeced too. Ojai political activists opposed to water rights are using their political influence to acquire a water company by eminent domain. What’s worse, their plan comes with no guarantees of lower water rates! Click here to read an article on how a private company is fighting to keep their property.

3.28.13 – In a strategy to stop lawsuits against the highly-controversial high speed rail project, the High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) has filed a lawsuit against ‘Everyone’ entitled, “HSRA v. All Persons Interested.” Is this a preemptive strike to stop lawsuits from those trying to protect their private property from eminent domain?  Click here to read the article.

3.24.13 – Here’s a good read. Now you know why it took years to abolish redevelopment agencies (RDAs) that abused private property rights and spent nearly $5 billion a year of taxpayer dollars on dubious private projects like sports arenas and golf courses!  Click here to read the editorial from the LA Daily News.

3.20.13 – The Public Records Act (PRA) has been an important tool by which the public can expose the cozy relationship between politicians and developers seeking to acquire private property by eminent domain. But, politicians also use personal emails to avoid making such communication public. A judge says no more! The public has the right to know. This judge scored a major victory for private property rights!  Click here to read the article.