Another government taking

Debra J. Saunders alerts us to another government land grab, in this piece.

King County enacts its Critical Areas Ordinance, restricting up to 65% of land from use, constituting an effective land grab with no compensation to the owners; the Supreme Court sides with New London, CT in the infamous Kelo decision, allowing property to be seized by a government so they can hand it over to a private developer; and now Yolo County in California wants to seize Conaway Ranch, a 17,300 acre spread north of Davis, CA which is close to Interstate 5, and has a fine view of Sacramento.

And what is the purported purpose of this potential seizure? To prevent the owners, a group of developers calling itself the Conaway Preservation Group, from maybe, at some point in the indefinable future, from developing small portions of their own property.

And just how are they going to pay for this? Through new taxes? Nope, amazing as that sounds. No, they have a "hand shake" agreement with the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians, who will put up the front money, and who, by the way, operate a casino in the area.

What do you think the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians will do with the property, if this latest land grab is allowed to happen? Property that is in close proximity to I-5, and an airport?

Not that I'm opposed to Indians owning property, and or operating casinos, or anything like that (we have our own Indian tribes operating casinos here in Washington State), and nothing has been said about them opening a new casino or anything like that, but I think I know what they will do with it, if this latest land grab attempt is successful.