Welcome to the Real Property Rights' Website!  Please, take a look around, there is a lot of information here and more to come.  Hopefully there are big organizational changes in our future, so please check back to see what they are.   “Property is the fruit of labor—property is desirable—is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.” —President Abraham Lincoln-- Reply to New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association, March 21, 1864.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 7, pp. 259-60 (1953).

What is so important about Property Rights? Property Rights are what sets the United States of America apart from just about any other country on this planet.  They are part of what makes us so unique.  The government can not take your property from you, without due process.  Yes, we have zoning codes that tell us what we can and can not build on our private property; that is good.  However, more and more, we see restrictive zoning changes eroding our property rights, probably because people do not understand just how important they are. What is the core problem? The essential problem is one of more and more governmental interference by way of over regulation and down zoning of your private property.   All zoning issues are that of "PROPERTY RIGHTS and PROPERTY VALUE".  Proper zoning, developed by professionals, is a good thing. It stops commercial buildings from being built next to single family homes, for instance. Zoning code should be clear and concise.  Anyone should be able to read the code and understand the parameters of what can be built within that code.  The problem arises when arbitrary and capricious "review" committees become part of the process. Just one of many issues is called "Anti-Mansionization" or "McMansions".  Proponents of these types of ordinances actually think they are helping property values by "adding exclusivity".  In truth, they are hurting property values.  Beyond value, your neighbor should not have a right to dictate what your home looks like or what size it is as long as it conforms to the zoning at the time it was built.  Some people believe that the zoning code existing at the time you became the owner of your property should be the code you live within for the duration of your and your heir's ownership. The fundamental reason for zoning code is to give everyone the limits that they can build within.  When you hear "They built from set back to set back." you shouldn't be concerned or offended.  That is the purpose of set backs, to limit where one can build.  We believe that if we had wanted to have design review and more restrictive zoning; we could have purchased in a community that already has those restrictions.  The core/basic zoning  shouldn't be changed or added piece meal after the original zoning rules have been in existance for years.

What are Property Rights about, anyway? Property rights seem to many people an archaic notion, a relic of a time long gone when the status of an individual would be determined by the property he owned. In such an era, most property belonged to a small portion of the population, and that ownership gave them not only wealth and social standing, but political as well as economic power. It recalls a time when a majority of the people owned little or nothing — women, for example, lost all control over what property they might have when they married — and, thus, government and society were under the control of a small elite. Most of us would prefer the present situation, when property is more widely distributed, when people may enjoy status on the grounds of their accomplishments as well as wealth, when women are no longer hobbled by outmoded notions, and when the right to vote is now universally enjoyed free of any requirement to be a landowner. But the right to own and enjoy property has always been an important part of the rights of the people. At the Philadelphia convention that drafted the Constitution, John Rutledge of South Carolina reminded the delegates that "property was certainly the principal object of Society." They did not really need much reminding, because the Framers all believed that respect for an individual's property rights lay at the heart of the social contract. Not only did they build institutional safeguards into the Constitution to protect those rights, but the nation soon added important provisions through the Bill of Rights to buttress that protection. Moreover, the Founders did not intend that these protections extend only to land or discernible assets, but to all the rights inherent in property — real or personal, tangible or intangible. They believed that property was "the guardian of every other right," for without the right to own and use and enjoy one's property free from arbitrary governmental interference, there could be no liberty of any sort. Today property rights are still important to the American people. The right to own what you have created, built, purchased or even been given as a gift — knowing that the government cannot take it from you except under stringent legal procedures — provides the material security that goes hand in hand with less tangible freedoms, such as speech and privacy. People whose economic rights are threatened are just as much at the mercy of a despotic government as are those who find their freedom of expression or their right to vote curtailed. When talking of rights, legal scholars often speak of a "bundle of rights," and by this they mean that all are closely connected. If we no longer believe that property rights underlie all other freedoms, we do believe that freedom is a seamless tapestry, in which every one of the rights in that bundle is important to the preservation of others. This is certainly true of freedom of speech, and it is no less true of property rights.

Do you want to do something about it? I invite you to join Real Property Rights to create a new entity that will financially assist citizens to defending their property rights. We hope that with enough people we can spread the costs. Will you join me, and many other concerned citizens and pledge a donation? Why pledge and not just send money? Because I don’t want to collect money until we need it. This site has a pledge form. So, please join with your friends and neighbors who have already committed to our efforts to protect property rights and values in the California we all love.