Thats just bull... who gives them the right to say?
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My home is only 2,000 square feet so therefore it is now illegal for anyone
> else to have a home larger than that and I don't care what you think about > it!
>
>
> ************************************
>
> Property rights are in trouble just about everywhere. The latest trend hits
> an economic right Americans have traditionally taken for granted: the right
> to build or buy the biggest home you can afford.
>
> The L.A. City Council recently approved, on an 11-0 vote, an
> *anti-mansionization* ordinance prohibiting smaller homes from being torn
> down and replaced by larger houses in the Sunland-Tujunga area. The
> ordinance limits houses on 8,000-square-foot lots or less to 2,400 square
> feet or 40 percent of the lot size, whichever is greater. Burbank and
> Glendale have similar laws, and other San Fernando Valley communities such
> as Valley Village and Valley Glen are lobbying for such restrictions. >
> This all begs the question: If *activist* neighbors, politicians, and
> bureaucrats can place restrictions on what you can do with your property, do
> you really own your property?
>
> According to anti-mansionization proponents such as Councilwoman Wendy
> Greuel, who made the motion for the ordinance, *Homes are being built larger
> than is necessary.* (to that I respond, *No matter the size of Mrs Greuel's
> home, to me it is still too large and must be torn down.*)
>
> But who is Ms. Greuel to judge how large someone's home may be or what is
> best for the homeowner? Different people have different wants and needs, and
> they should be free to pursue their happiness as they see fit, provided they
> *do not violate the rights of others* in the process. No third party - gov't
> official or not - has the capacity to determine what is right for everyone
> else, much less dictate how everyone else must use their private property.
> Next, you will have to trade in your Hummer for a Mini Cooper because a nosy
> neighbor or heavy-handed bureaucrat thinks your vehicle is *larger than > necessary.*
>
> Anti-mansionists also argue that by limiting how large one can build his own
> house on his own land they are, as Greuel said, *preserving the unique
> character of the community.* But homeowners do not own all of the homes in a
> community. They only control the one they live in.
>
> What? You don't remember the old lady down the street with all the cats
> signing the deed to your house? Too bad. According to anti-mansionization
> activists, she has just as much right to decide what you do with your
> property as you do.
>
> There is no basis on which to believe that the *character* of a community
> should remain unchanged in perpetuity. Housing demands are not the same as
> they were in the 1970s or the 1950s. Community make-ups often change
> drastically over time. Why should communities be rigidly *preserved* as
> though they were stuck in time?
>
> This is not to say that a group of homeowners who each choose to establish
> and maintain a certain community character should not be free to do so.
> Indeed, many people join homeowners associations for just this reason. These
> groups may self-regulate the size, shape, and color of homes, as well as
> numerous other things, in order to preserve a certain community look and
> feel. Those not bound by such voluntary restrictions, however, should not be
> forced, through the power of gov't, to comport with the whims of an
> overzealous politician, bureaucrat, or neighbor.
>
> Large-house supply is merely meeting large-house demand. The increase in
> housing size is a long-term trend. According to U.S. Census Bureau
> statistics, the average house size more than doubled from 1950 to 1999. As
> interest rates rise, savings levels approach zero, personal debt skyrockets,
> and adjustable and interest-only home loans continue to flourish, the
> inevitable bursting of the housing bubble in California markets may reverse
> this trend, however.
>
> At the heart of the debate is whether we should embrace *individual rights*
> or *community rights.* Councilman Greig Smith offered the chilling assertion
> that *while we have personal rights to property, we also have community
> rights to property.*
>
> The problem is that individual property rights and communal rights are
> mutually exclusive: either you have the right to control your property or
> political entity does. You do not really own something if you have to put
> anything you do with it up to a public vote. If everyone *owns* something,
> no one *owns* it.
>
> It has been talked at length of individual rights; but what, it may be
> asked, of the *rights of society*? Don't they supersede the rights of the
> mere individual? The libertarian, however, is an individualist; he believes
> that one of the prime errors in social theory is to treat *society* as if it
> were an actually existing entity. *Society* is sometimes treated as a
> superior or quasi-divine figure with overriding *rights* of its own; at
> other times as an existing evil which can be blamed for all the ills of the
> world. The individualist holds that only individuals exist, think, feel,
> choose, act and held accountable for those acts; and that *society* is not a
> living entity but simply a label for a set of interacting individuals.
> Treating society as a thing that chooses and acts, then, serves to obscure
> the real forces at work. If, in a small community, ten people band together
> to rob and expropriate three others then this is clearly and evidently a
> case of a group of individuals acting in concert against another group. In
> this situation, if the ten people presumed to refer to themselves as
> *society* acting in *its* interest, the rationale would be laughed out of
> court; even the ten robbers would probably be too shamefaced to use this
> sort of argument. But let their size increase, and this kind of
obfuscation
becomes rife and succeeds in easily duping the public.
>
> This is the same sort of logic demonstrated by the Adam's of the world, that
> theft on an individual level is immoral and criminal but when practiced on a
> grand scale by gov't through taxation it is acceptable and even necessary.
> Clearly people that think this way are not thinking at all and are
> unprincipled and deserving of an absurd instance of that which they wish for
> others.
>
> It has been said: *Society is everyone but you.* A *society* - or
> *community* - is nothing but the sum of the interactions of a group of
> individuals. It is a label, nothing more. It does not possess its own
> special rights or privileges. In short, not only do *community rights* not
> supersede *individual rights*, there are no *community rights* to private
> property, only *individual rights*. The deed to your house does not give you
> a partial interest in mine as well.
>
> Everyone has the right not to like what their neighbors do to their homes.
> You do not, however, have the right to impose your preferences on another's
> property. As much as you are repulsed by your neighbor's pink flamingo lawn
> ornaments or garden gnome collection, you do not have the right to prevent
> him from displaying them any more than you have the right to go over to his
> yard and steal or destroy them. You just have to suck it up and deal with
> it; it's not your property!
>
> Ironically, unlike prolific garden gnomes, larger houses may even increase
> the value of surrounding homes because they are more desirable these days.
> This leads to higher resale values for homeowners and higher property tax
> revenues (which governments normally prefer) for local governments. It thus
> appears that local officials are shooting themselves in the foot by denying
> themselves funding for needed services in order to maintain a community's
> stagnant character. (Note: This should not be construed as an endorsement of
> property taxes, merely an observation of the consequences of restricting
> home size under the current tax system.)
>
> A man's home is his castle, even if he decides to build it next door to you.
> Individuals should be less concerned with their neighbors' lack of respect
> for a perceived *community character* or their tacky lawn displays and more
> concerned with the way gov't is whittling away their fundamental property
> rights. Remember John Locke's natural rights of life, liberty, and property,
> upon which the Declaration of Independence was based? (if not, go look it up
> right now) That shadow looming over you is not that of the large mansion
> your neighbor just built, it is the shadow of gov't enveloping your property
> rights.
>
>