Property rights are a fundamental, core American value. Our California state constitution states in the first Article that "all people by nature are free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property."

The California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act reaffirms and strengthens the private property protections set forth in our state constitution.

Stop the taking

Government taking private property for special interests must stop.

Right now, government has the right to take private property -- our homes, family farms, places of worship, mom-and-pop small businesses -- to build a sports stadium, big-box chain store or industrial park. Politically connected special interests abuse government's power of eminent domain to take and develop private property. It may seem unbelievable, but California's track record of eminent domain abuse is appalling.

Ahmad Mesdaq's elegant and profitable cigar and coffee bar, Gran Havana Cigar and Coffee Lounge in San Diego, was taken to build a Marriot hotel. Barragans' Community Youth Athletic Center, a thriving kids' community center in National City, is being taken so a powerful, connected developer can build luxury condos and chain stores. Why are these businesses taken? Redevelopment is big business: By taking private property, local governments are profiting from a higher tax revenue base. These actions are unfair and must stop.

CPOFPA will put an end to this abuse of eminent domain. Forty-one other states have implemented eminent domain reform. Now California must take action. The act provides property rights protections for all property owners, small and large.

The act provides that

• Private property may not be taken by eminent domain for private use under any circumstances (i.e., to build a shopping center, auto mall, industrial park).

• Property may be taken by eminent domain only for public use (e.g., freeways, parks, schools).

• Property may not be taken by government and used for the same purposes (e.g., residential housing cannot be used for government housing).

• Family farms and open space are protected from seizures by government for the purpose of selling the natural resources.

• If a public agency takes property under false pretenses, or abandons its plans, the property must be offered for sale to the original owner at the original price.

• If farmers or business owners are evicted by eminent domain, they would be entitled to compensation for temporary business losses, relocation expenses and business re-establishment costs.

• Government may not set the price at which property owners sell or lease their property.

Rent control must go

The right to set the sale, lease and rental price of private property must be protected.

This act very simply states that government cannot limit "the price a private owner may charge another person to purchase, occupy or use his or her real property" (Section 19(b)(1)). There are two ways government can take private property: 1) using eminent domain to seize property, and 2) using price controls to squeeze the economic value an owner can realize from his property. Both methods are taking private property from the rightful owner. CPOFPA closes the loophole that government uses to take private property.

In fact, this newspaper has recognized the importance of the property owners' freedom to set a lease price. In October 2005, the North County Times issued an editorial stating, "Rent control takes wealth from landowners by depriving them of the prices justified by the market."

Protect seniors, families

Tenants who live in rent-regulated communities will continue to receive the benefit of those regulations as long as they live in their apartments or mobile homes. Their rent control will never be taken away from them. This form of phasing out of rent caps is called "vacancy decontrol," and it currently exists for rental apartment buildings in California and many mobile-home parks. Existing laws protect tenants from eviction to raise rents. The mobile-home park rent control ordinance in Escondido has full vacancy decontrol.

Vacancy decontrol was implemented in Escondido mobile-home parks about 10 years ago. Vacancy decontrol brought renewed investment and renovation, and many of the old trailers have been replaced with new manufactured homes in the mobile-home parks.

On the other hand, Oceanside mobile-home parks do not have vacancy decontrol. The park owners in those communities are struggling to make ends meet and do not have the income or incentives to make improvements as in the Escondido parks. Because of the very low rents, the old trailers stay in place and sell for very inflated prices. The inflated prices make it so manufactured home retailers cannot afford to buy the old trailers and replace them with new manufactured homes.

Take a drive through several of Escondido's and Oceanside's mobile-home parks and you will see new manufactured homes throughout the Escondido parks, while Oceanside's mobile-home parks have deteriorating, older trailers. Most of the trailers in Oceanside mobile-home parks are 30 to 40 years old.

As stated in the North County Times editorial, "In protecting some, governments that opt for rent control expose many to an artificially inflated market. With rent inching higher as homeownership vaults out of reach for many, the episode stands as a reminder that city councils who turn to rent control end up hurting their poor and working class."

Leading the fight

Californians for Property Rights Protection is a coalition of homeowners, family farmers, small-business owners and other property owners led by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California Farm Bureau Federation, and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights. Together, this powerful coalition is qualifying the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act for the election in June 2008. Voter signature gathering is under way statewide. For more information about Californians for Property Rights Protection and the ballot initiative, please visit us at www.yesonpropertyrights.com.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and chairman of Californians for Property Rights Protection. This Op-Ed was submitted by a Sacramento-based public-relations firm.