City Council doesn’t respect property rights

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Gilbert G Gonzales

Published May 14, 2008 at 5:19 p.m.

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The down zoning decision by the city council this past Tuesday morning is very disturbing and not only because I lost a lot of sleep watching the proceedings on channel 8 until the wee hours of the morning. One of the many results of this decision is that homeowners, who live in the impacted areas, that own a single family residence will no longer be able to build a duplex on their property. They will still be able to build a McMansion but not a duplex. One of the reasons that Councilman Michael Hancock gave at the hearing for voting for the down zoning was that he didn’t like the looks of a McMansion on a block of smaller homes in the Sloan Lake neighborhood. I am concerned that the council’s next step will be to only allow small homes to be built on blocks that consist of small homes. They might not even allow expansions to the smaller homes.

Any decision by the city council, or by any other government institution, that takes away property rights of any of its citizens needs to be done for compelling reasons. Private property is one of the foundations of American society. Some people even believe that without private property a society can not be free. One of the main ideologies that ignores private property rights is Marxism. The taking away of property rights should not be done cavalierly, for personal profit or even because a government official just doesn’t like the looks.

The city council down zoning decision did not rest on improving the tax base because this decision will probably decrease property values, nor was it because the down zoning will somehow better protect the citizens affected. It will have no impact on the safety of its citizens. The decision wasn’t even based on the fact that most of the people living in the affected area were in favor of the down zoning. At least no evidence was presented that this was the case. If anything, based on the facts presented at the hearing a plurality of the people were against the decision. Councilman Nevitt acknowledged that he made a subjective (as in not objective) decision when he surmised that most of the people were in favor.

The main reason for the council’s decision had to do with Peter Park, a bureaucrat with the city, and his interpretation of a “living document” called BluePrint Denver. The only legal “living document” that I am aware of is called the United States Constitution and I am not going to put BluePrint Denver in the same category, even though several members of the city council appeared to do so. Blue Print Denver is a vision and a guide to future Denver development. It is a document crafted over several years and was given council approval in 2002. However, this document should not be used as a sledgehammer to override the rights, needs and desires of Denver’s citizens.

Councilman Doug Linkhart emphasized the U. S. Constitution does not give citizens absolute property rights just as it does not give citizens absolute freedom of speech. A standard in limiting free speech is that a person cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theater, where there is no fire. The council’s decision of yanking Denver citizens’ property rights does not rise to that standard.

I would like to commend Charlie Brown and Jeanne Faatz for being the only dissenters on the council.

Gilbert G Gonzales is a resident of Denver.

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