Eminent Domain by citizens

I am voting YES on Measure F and No on Measure I because it is no more than Eminent Domain by Citizens. My reasoning is simple.

Eminent Domaine is physically taking of private property or “devaluing” private property by the government against the will of the property owner. The government sets the value or price the property owner is paid.

Measure I is “Eminent Domaine by Citizens” who are “taking” private property against the property owners wishes by “devaluing” the property, and adding insult to injury, NOTHING in Measure I addresses financial compensation for the property owner.

An example: Let’s say I own a 5-acre property and graze cattle on the property. Times have changed and it is no longer profitable to graze cattle. I want to retire and sell it off the property. Since there is not a great demand for cattle grazing, I receive no offers on the property, so I sell for residential development for which there is high demand (not to mention a lot of need). I go through the very lengthy city process of public meetings, planning commission and approval by the council to build homes on the property. Under Measure I, there is an additional step to the process and it would now require a special election by the citizenry to approve the zoning change. The citizens vote the property not be zoned residential. Now, I, the property owner, have 5 acres of land and a bunch of non-profitable cows; land I can do nothing with except spend the yearly costs of maintaining the land. My property, which I counted on to help fund my retirement, now has little-to-no monetary value. So under Measure I, the citizens have “taken“ my property from me by taking away its value.

This is just highway robbery. At least when the government takes away a person’s property, they pay them something. Measure I makes NO accommodation…just leaves me with worthless land that I am forever tied to. Hell of a thing for citizens to do to a fellow citizen. If the government did it, we’d call them thieves!

Vote YES on F and stop the insanity of Measure I.

– P. Krause