1. Measure A asks a simple question. If the Board of Supervisors takes our property for public benefit, shouldn’t we be compensated? If our answer is YES, then we must Vote YES on Measure A.
2. Under current County policy, the County can wipe out 95% of our property value with new regulations and owe us nothing. Under Measure A, the County will not be allowed to do that without voter approval.
3. If the County were to demand most of our retirement funds, what would be our answer? Why should it be different for our property?
4. Measure A will stop the government from taking our property value without paying us.
5. New regulations that take away our existing property rights are regulatory takings.
6. Property taken through regulation should be treated like property taken through physical seizure. We should pay for what we take.
7. Regulatory takings have gone out of control. Government thinks it can take anything it wants, anytime, for any reason. Measure A will give control of regulatory takings back to the voters.
8. Measure A establishes a fair written County policy for handling future regulatory takings.
9. Regulation always comes with a price that someone has to pay. Opponents say taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay the cost of damaging new land use restrictions, but it is even more unfair to force property owners to pay it.
10. The County doesn’t consider the financial harm a new regulation might cause us, because it is not currently accountable for the damage.
11. By making the County accountable, Measure A will encourage consideration of costs as well as benefits, and whether or not the benefits justify the costs.
12. Measure A will ensure that we govern responsibly based on cost/benefit analyses.
13. As property owners. we should be allowed to keep what we have worked hard to buy. The rules should not be changed in mid-stream causing ruin to the value of our property.
14. Measure A helps ensure a stable regulatory environment so we can make reliable plans for our futures.
15. Those people that were in tears over losing their property, defenseless before a cold blooded BOS during the public hearings on the Stream Setback Ordinance, deserved better treatment then, and they deserve our protection now from similar atrocities in the future.
16. The wealthy and politically well connected will always be able to defend their property. Measure A is for the rest of us.
17. It gives small property owners a seat at the bargaining table when important decisions are made that adversely impact their property.
18. Land use regulations are implemented to benefit the public, but up until now, whenever landowners have asked for compensation, they have been told to get lost.
19. We shouldn’t rob some to benefit others.
20. Measure A embodies a basic American principle: Even the most worthy governmental goals must be pursued by fair methods.
21. Some decisions are simply too important to leave in the hands of a politically divided Board of Supervisors.
22. Allowing just three County Supervisors to enact regulations that take from some to benefit others leaves property owners too vulnerable to shifting local political winds. Approval of unfair government takings should be approved only by the voters.
23. As with Measure J, Measure A will give the voters the final say in any sweeping changes to Napa County’s land use regulation.
24. Just as Measure J protects the Ag Preserve by requiring the BOS to get voter approval to alter the Ag Preserve, Measure A protects property owners by requiring the BOS to get voter approval to curtail property rights.
25. The Supervisors will refer any damaging new land use restrictions to the voters because voter approval exempts the restrictions from Measure A. Naturally, only the regulations that impose unfair burdens will require voter review.
26. Asking the voters prior to enacting another Stream Setback Ordinance (or worse) will eliminate the burden of expensive referendum elections to overturn onerous restrictions imposed by callous, insensitive and out of touch Supervisors.
27. Measure A won’t cost the County anything unless it tries to take someone’s property without getting voter approval.
28. Opponents say they won’t take our property, but they also say it will bankrupt them if they have to pay for what they take. They can’t have it both ways. If they don’t plan to take our property, then Measure A will not cost them anything. If they do plan to take our property, then we need Measure A’s protection.
29. The high costs of filing will discourage frivolous claims. Measure A does not allow recovery of legal costs, and lawyers will not take these cases on a contingency basis because Measure A allows the County to settle claims without paying any money.
30. If Measure A is administered honestly and in good faith by the County, no money need ever change hands.
31. Under Measure A, property owners don't make money, they only break even. No one realizes any net benefit from merely being compensated for actual damage.
32. All anyone gets is what every property owner deserves – assurance that the value of his property will not be destroyed by regulation.
33. Property rights are important to all of us.
34. The “property” we purchase and own is really just the bundle of rights that come with the deed. When government enacts new restrictions that take those rights away, it is literally taking our property.
35. Opponents of Measure A sound like shoplifters and pickpockets complaining that they will go bankrupt if they have to pay for everything they take. The only real link between bankruptcy and Measure A is the moral bankruptcy of its opponents.
36. Measure A will ensure that the value of our primary asset will not be confiscated or destroyed to serve some public goal unless we are fairly compensated.
37. We create governments to protect our rights, not to take them away. Measure A protects critically important rights.
38. Measure A applies only to NEW land use restrictions, and does not apply to any other County actions, such as spraying vineyard pests, raising traffic mitigation fees, regulating nuisances, or approving, denying, or setting conditions for development permits pursuant to existing regulations.
39. It does nothing to hinder any new land use regulation that treats property owners fairly.
40. It does not surrender any local authority. It merely provides that our authority be exercised responsibly and fairly, and that the legitimate rights and needs of property owners be considered as decisions are being made.
41. It sends a clear message to the large corporate agricultural interests and our own government that family farming is not, and should not, be a crime.
42. Measure A protects the Ag preserve by grandfathering in all our existing land use restrictions as exempt from Measure A.
43. It fosters cooperation between landowners and the County to accomplish specific environmental goals. Instead of constantly piling on sweeping regulations, site specific problems can be addressed and rectified.
44. It does not change any zoning laws, ease any existing restrictions, ease environmental protections, allow any new uses, or encourage any new development.
45. Measure A will give us assurance that our forests can continue to be properly managed under our existing regulations for habitat, erosion, and fire protection.
46. It encourages amicable settlement of claims in the spirit of compromise, gives the County the flexibility it needs to secure essential environmental protections, while also giving impacted property owners a seat at the bargaining table.
47. We already have plenty of restrictions. We are one of the most regulated Counties in the country.
48. If more protections are eventually needed, they will be less likely to meet resistance if they are implemented in the thoughtful and fair manner required by Measure A.
49. Land use regulations have a ratchet effect. Once imposed, they are rarely relaxed. The noose on property owners continually tightens. Measure A will slow that process.
50. The Supreme Court has abandoned us. We must now protect our property rights locally. Measure A will protect our property from being taken by the County without compensation unless voters approve the taking.
51. When the Supreme Court rewrote the Fifth Amendment takings clause to allow “public use” to mean “public benefit”, we all became targets.
52. Napa County currently has no protections in place for takings abuse. Measure A provides it.
53. It will also prevent government from first making our property worthless by regulating away its usefulness in order to take it later for practically nothing under eminent domain.
54. Measure A contains reasonable exceptions for restrictions imposed to abate public nuisances, to enforce existing regulations, and to implement building and fire codes, health and safety regulations, hazardous waste regulations, and state and federal mandates.
55. It will help steer us back toward the middle course that we have neglected for so long, by causing the County to finally consider both sides of the equation before acting.
56. Measure A says any new land use restrictions over and above all those we already have must be cautiously approached, designed to minimize damage, and implemented only if the benefits outweigh the costs.
57. It will put common sense and fairness back into land use regulation in Napa County.
58. Measure A fits with Measure Z. Measure Z will make the Supervisors read and understand the impacts their new regulations will have on us, and Measure A will make them care.
59. The campaign against Measure A is just fabrication, distortion, and scare tactics, designed to divert our attention from the central question.
60. The Land Stewards’ rebuttal of the 9111 Report (posted at www.landstewards.org) clearly shows how the 9111 Report is biased, inaccurate, and intentionally misleading.
61. Measure A has, for all intents and purposes, already been in effect for over a year, without any negative repercussions.
62. Measure A sidesteps all the problems caused by Oregon’s retroactive Measure 37 because Measure A exempts all existing land use regulations.
63. It’s not about money, it’s about fairness, honesty, and integrity.
64. We don’t want money from the County. We just want the right to use our property for the uses that were allowed when we bought it.
65. If your property is not safe, neither is mine.
66. Warning: A ‘no” vote on Measure A would give the County permission (perhaps even a voter mandate?) to take our property without compensation.
Vote YES on Measure A
Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance
www.landstewards.org