Building-Permit Extortion
The Orange County Register had an editorial yesterday about the Carlsbad case. Excerpt:
This is one of the most outrageous things we've seen: a demand by the city that an owner permanently cede his rights in exchange for a permit.
Officials forget that in a free society, individuals have rights to use and develop their property as they see fit, provided they don't cause harm to others. But officials act as if the government maintains all rights and can simply divvy them up to individuals in exchange for various indulgences.