Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance is an all volunteer organization dedicated to preserving property rights. We are alarmed about gradually losing the sanctity, privacy, and utility of our homes and properties to an endless stream of new land use regulations that steadily chip away at our rights. We strive to promote greater awareness of the adverse social and economic impacts of proposed new land use restrictions and to ensure that those adverse impacts are fairly balanced against any perceived benefits of the new restrictions.
What are NVLSA’s goals?
We are working to ensure reason and balance in policies affecting our right to use and enjoy our homes and our properties. Before any new restrictions are enacted, we want a full evaluation of their impacts, both positive and negative, including environmental, economic, and social impacts. We want everyone (including the County Supervisors, as is their clear duty under the Read and Understand Act) to understand the full impact any new ordinance would have on their right to use and enjoy their property, and on the County’s economy. And we will continue to insist that any new ordinance must say which measurable attributes of the environment it seeks to improve, must estimate what degree of improvement might be expected if the ordinance is enacted, and must provide reasonable ways to measure the effectiveness of the ordinance once it is in place. Any new property restriction that cannot be reasonably justified in those terms will be opposed by NVLSA.
What principle guides NVLSA?
NVLSA emphasizes that respect for the environment and respect for individual citizens and their property rights are equally important, and that these values are mutually consistent. Individual private property ownership provides a strong incentive for good stewardship. Those who live and work on their land are the labor force that prevent erosion, repair flood and wind damage, and reduce the risk of flood and fire. Rather than hampering their efforts with excessive regulation, we should provide them quality information, so they can work in concert for true environmental gain. NVLSA recognizes that individual owners, armed with the best information, are the best possible stewards of the land. It is from this principle that we draw our name, the Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance.
The Challenges we face:
Threats to our rights continue to mount, in an endless stream of new regulations from our cities, the County, the State, the Federal Government, and their various unelected bureaucracies. NVLSA works primarily at the County level, where we feel we can be most effective, but we also endeavor to keep our members informed of new threats from other levels of government, and to maintain links with other like-minded organizations that work at those levels. See our links page for a listing of some of those organizations.
What are our resources?
If you feel as we do, then you are our best resource. Your time, your energy, your reasoning abilities, your influence, your creative ideas, your moral support, and whatever money you can contribute will carry us to our goals. If you feel as we do, we need your help. Please join NVLSA today.