Free Republic

MADERA, Calif. -- The only way of life that Denis Prosperi and his ancestors here have ever known is disappearing. He hears the same unsettling news all the time. Another farmer gives up and cashes out. And more rooftops start rising up in place of the great multitude of crops that have long swept across and sustained this land. Prosperi figured that might be his fate, too. But he is busy this spring tending to fields of almonds and grapes, same as ever. So are all of his neighbors. No one is budging from his farm -- for good....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Special delivery agencies are to be deployed by ministers to fast-track building in a string of new townships along the Thames in east London, Kent and Essex, now being hailed as Britain's new "linear city". Working with local councils and developers, the agencies will use legislation designed for the former London Docklands Development Corporation to assemble land, using compulsory purchase powers where necessary, in the largest exercise of its kind since the creation of new towns in the 60s and 70s. This week Tony Blair will be presented with plans for...

Find your city here at the SmartGrowth.org latest news page Land-Value Loss Compensation a Hot Issue in Oregon Gubernatorial Campaign Although the Oregon Supreme Court barred a move to compensate owners for land-value losses incurred under Oregon land-use laws -- invalidating Measure 7, passed by voters in 2000, as using one amendment for multiple constitutional changes -- the compensation remains a potent issue in the state gubernatorial campaign, with Republican Kevin Mannix willing to send the measure's ''technically correct'' version back to voters, Democrat Ted Kulongoski arguing for a legislative solution and Libertarian Tom Cox proposing to study the effectiveness...

In New Jersey, not exactly famous for its forests, a large fire broke out in the Pinelands in early June, threatening homes and other structures before it was brought under control. In California, Colorado, and other States, homeowners are not so lucky as the beginning of yet another spate of cataclysmic forest fires occurs again. You protect forests by providing for their proper management and that means timber companies have to come in and thin the old and diseased trees. Overgrown brush has to be removed as well. The US timber industry has been systematically attacked by environmentalists for decades...

PORTLAND, Ore. - One of the first major metropolitan areas in the nation to throw up an imaginary fence around the suburbs to control sprawl is deciding whether to loosen the restrictions. The "urban growth boundary" that has preserved forests and farms on Portland's doorstep has made the city a national model for containing sprawl. Metro, the only elected regional planning agency in the nation, decides when and where the line can be extended and new homes and businesses erected, based on population growth within the boundary. But a conservative property rights group, Oregonians in Action, says Metro is too...