Welcome to the Future!
What is happening? H.R. 7021 (117th Congress) will limit the term of a conservation easement to a maximum of 50 years.
Why is this important? The goal is protecting property property rights by stopping permanent land grabs
How will this be important? Supporters appear to prefer their easements to be “transparent, even-handed, and temporary while adequately compensating landowners and preventing them from being effectively deprived of the full fee simple value of their property.”
What is happening? Republican legislators in Iowa want to offer certainty to landowners in the path of a proposed carbon pipeline by requiring a 1 year moratorium on eminent domain.
Why is this important? The legislator made it clear that he is not anti-pipeline. The pipeline in question would move carbon through Iowa to other states to be sequestered.
How will this be important? Every time we deal with eminent domain, it is 2 competing constitutional rights. The right of a condemning entity to take land under certain circumstances and the protection the constitution affords to protect a land owners land from being taken.
Iowa Capital Dispatch | Bill switcheroo would delay eminent domain for pipelines
What is happening? Before my time, the US welcomed small businesses at home- like the porch salon or barber shop. Since we’re heading into the Roaring 20s, what’s old is new again. Meet the Accessory Commerical Unit, a compact small business space that is added to the lot of a residential property.
Why is this important? The goal is to make small business ownership more accessible and cities more livable.
How will this be important? Portland, New Orleans and Minneapolis allow Accessory Commerical Units. Raleigh, N.C., may amend its zoning code to allow all neighborhoods currently zoned residential to have them, with limits on number of employees and customer occupancy. “Under the proposal, ACUs could be used for offices, restaurants, and service-oriented businesses like hair salons.”
Market Urbanism Report via Governing | The Case for More Backyard Bodegas and Sidewalk Salons
What is happening? The Texas House Committee on Urban Affairs will study “the use of public-private partnerships and other tools to incentivize the development of housing that meets Texas’ expanding workforce demands.”
Why is this important? Let’s think about COVID times when cities, like Los Angeles, considered eminent domain to take property of hotels or apartment complexes to offer housing.
How will this be important? The opportunities for P3 partnership for housing are many.
What’s happening? The Texas House is going to study ” the effect of governmental land-use regulations and controls on the availability and affordability of residential housing in Texas, including land use and zoning restrictions and related factors that slow or hinder housing development and improvement”
Why is this important? Washington State was considering requiring local governments to permit zoning for townhomes, duplexes and quadplexes in previously zoned single family residential areas. HB 1782 (2021-2022 | WA)
How will this be important? Oregon passed a similar bill in 2019. California did so in 2021 with SB 9 and SB 10. Arizona is considering a bill in 2022.
What’s happening? Arkansas, Florida and Virginia, along with the District of Columbia, enacted legislation that provided funding for the cemeteries or created committees to study the preservation of cemeteries. Virginia House Bill 285 (2019).
Why is this important? Human dignity. Descendants could be contacted before cemeteries are disturbed.
How will this be important? New Hampshire’s SB 258 (2022 | NH) would require local government officials to provide reasonable access to records and sites to the descendants and descendant community to identify and examine the graves. Florida’s SB 1588 (2022 | FL) would “create a program within the state’s Division of Historical Resources to research and identify abandoned cemeteries, develop maintenance guidance and prioritize placement of historical markers for abandoned or lost African American cemeteries”
Route Fifty | Black Advocates Take Ownership of Ancestors’ History; Legislation Could Help
What is happening? New Pew Research Center data:
Why is this important? People wanted more space
How will this be important? Gallup tracks how people feel about the country. This result of R contingency thinking the pandemic created a divide could appear in Gallup numbers too.
What is happening? A wave of fraudulent property filings has led to local governments offering property title monitoring services for its residents.
Why is this important? Imposter paperwork filings have increased, and local governments are giving residents an opportunity to be notified when any change is made to their property and deed documents
How will this be important? FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center notes that real estate and rental markets had a 279% increase in lost funds from 2017 to 2020.
What’s happening? Iowa has a new private property rights group, Iowa Easement Team.
Why is this important? The group’s concern is the use of eminent domain for private gain by building a pipeline through Iowa.
How will this be important? Iowa Easement Team has hired a law firm and is working with landowners to make the process of protecting their private property rights less daunting.
Iowa Public Radio | Iowa landowners unite against use of eminent domain
Oskaloosa Herald | Landowners form group to fight pipeline eminent domain
What is happening? A woman who runs a business in her Lakeway, Texas home discovered her business shut down by the City of Lakeway. Allegedly after golfers complained that “they could hear and see children playing in her backyard”
Why is this important? A lawsuit asserts that the City of Lakeway’s use of zoning laws to stop a state-licensed home day care business is unconstitutional
How will this be important? Look, I can’t make this quote up, and it speaks volumes ““A former mayor’s desire to golf without seeing children’s toys outside any of the homes near the golf course does not defeat a single mother’s right to earn a living by caring for her neighbors’ children,” said IJ Attorney Jared McClain.