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- Info
Finding common ground on public and private land
| Author: |
Wiebe, Keith D.; Tegene, Abebayehu; Kuhn, Betsy |
| Date: |
1997 |
| Periodical: |
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation |
| Abstract: |
Recent years have seen considerable debate about the ways in which the nation\'s public and private lands are used. Property rights and environmental policy reform occupied a prominent place on the legislative agenda of the 104th Congress, culminating in passage, by the House of Representatives in 1995, of strict new requirements for compensation of \'\'takings\'\' when federal actions diminish the value of private property (Wiebe, Tegene, and Kuhn 1995).
While these bills were never passed by the Senate or signed into law, and while the 105th Congress has not (yet) considered similar legislation, the questions they raise remain at the heart of the debate over the appropriate balance between public and private interests in the use of the nation\'s public and private lands. What rights do property owners have to use their land in the ways they choose, and to enjoy the benefits of those uses? What responsibilities do they have to avoid land uses cause harm to their neighbors or to other members of society? What rights do other members of society have to be free of the harmful side effects of private actions on private lands? What responsibilities does society have to restrict such actions?
Such questions are matters of legitimate public debate, and judging by their endurance thus far, can be expected to remain so well into the future. Nevertheless it is possible to reduce the scope of the debate by focusing more clearly on the nature of land ownership, and in so doing, to identify areas of potential agreement among landowners, environmental groups, and taxpayers in general. After providing a closer look at property and ownership, this paper describes a variety of ways in which voluntary acquisition and conveyance of partial interests in land could-or already do-offer common ground on which to balance competing objectives regarding the use of public and private land.
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