A battle is brewing. It has been brewing for years, or even decades. It is a battle over property rights and it may not be what you think it is.
It isn’t a battle between the State and the Towns. It is a battle between Towns and property owners.
The NH Constitution states, “All men have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting, property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happiness.”
The job of the government is to protect our rights. (“To secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men”.) But in many towns, in too many, the job of government is to restrict owners’ property rights.
Town Planning boards use central planning at the town level to remove the property rights of individual owners for the benefit of a few. They impose one-size-fits-all restrictions that may not work for you and your family.
If you want to turn your garage into a nice cottage where your newly married child can start to raise a family in the town you love, the town won’t let you do it unless you meet their restrictions for an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). If your town planners think that two houses won’t fit in your three acres, too bad, their ideas are superior, you’re not allowed to do what is best for you and your family.
If your children have all moved out and you no longer need such a large house but want to continue to live in the town and house you love, and so you decide to rent out part of your home for more income — nope, you can’t do that without town permission. Even if your neighbors love your idea because their children are eager to rent from you and not have to move out of state to find affordable housing, tough, town planners set the rules regardless of what you and your neighbors think is best for your particular situation.
Or suppose that you have a small business. You decide to live above the shop so that you have zero commute and so that you can live in walking distance of other places you like to shop. Nope. The town won’t let you.
These activities used to be commonplace, a natural right of a property owner. But today, hapless property owners have less and less control over their own property. Town zoning zealots are on a mission to implement what they believe is best for you, regardless of what you and your family know is best.
The right to control your own property is one of our oldest and dearest of rights. Its history goes back thousands of years. The NH Constitution lists it first among our rights – ahead of the right to keep and bear arms, or the right to be secure from all unreasonable searches, or freedom of speech, and even the rights of conscience.
Long-suffering property owners might recall some words from another of our rights. “The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.” Yes, the ends of government – “to secure these rights” – have been perverted, and yes, public liberty is endangered. But we have not (yet?) reached the point where “all other means of redress are ineffectual.”
The legislature is considering several bills to strengthen the natural rights of property owners. Other people are aghast that the legislature would even consider such a thing. They claim that this is a threat to their property rights. What rights are those? The right to restrict owners’ rights? There is no such right – a power, yes, a right, no.
They are so used to enjoying their delegated power to restrict other people’s natural rights that they have come to think of it as their right. They think of property rights as a collective right, not an individual right. They want the collective, not the individual owners, to control those rights.
One of their arguments is that the State should butt out for the sake of local control. If they really want local control, they should realize that the most local form of control is the individual property owner.
Some people say that they love property rights but what they mean is that they love the power to control what other people do with their property.
Imagine if we treated other rights as badly as we treat property rights. We love the right to keep and bear arms, but the Town Meeting can restrict the size or number of your guns. Or we love free speech, but we have reasonable restrictions against hate speech.
Change is coming. It could come gradually if towns relax their grip on the reins of power and show some respect for the natural rights of property owners. It could come more quickly if the legislature reconsiders some of the powers it has delegated to towns and, in some small measure, asserts individual rights over the rights of the collective.
As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
Donate to the ‘Grok to keep the content coming.
