This proclamation is a consensus of a shared concern to ensure for the protection of communities from the stifling effects of lawsuits. Many communities are confronted with the damaging effects when public interest groups who sue federal, state and local governments to examine or re-examine authorization for private or public enterprise. Under the guise of protecting the environment, endangered species, clear air, visibility and water sources, the public interest legal complaints against government agencies requires the landowner to conduct costly research, tests and review at their expense to determine if the alleged claims are valid.
It appears that the goal of these lawsuits filed by public interest groups results in restricting the property rights of the landowner. The prostitution of the justice system to restrict private land use and bankrupting the developer’s capital investment shrouds the community with an anti-business image that causes prospective enterprises such as cattle ranching, mining and real estate developments to look elsewhere. These lawsuits severely hinder any engineering applications of current scientific advances to be used to protect nature’s environment, while developing resources that foster a prosperous economy. These lawsuits are counter-productive as they develop anger of the landowner against the public interest groups who filed the lawsuit. This soon becomes a hateful confrontation that does little to protect the environment with available technology. The real cause of this discord is a federal law that reimburses the public interest groups legal fees at taxpayer expense.
The first group to adopt the following proclamation is the Southeastern Arizona Contractors Association (SACA).
We, as very concerned professionals, trade organizations and citizens who have owned a business, believe that some of the Not-For- Profit interest groups engage in causes that stifle the development and well-being of Southern Arizona. These interest groups are doing a great disservice to our community with their assault on property rights that impose an economic burden on the property owner.
The opponents to our social and economic well-being in Southern Arizona are conducted under the guise of protecting the environment, endangered species and water resources. It appears that these interest groups are blinded in the pursuit of their goals and proposals, that they are unable to perceive, or does not care, that the cost to save the environment, endangered species and water resources is not borne by society, but is a legal plunder of individual property ownership.
For years, the allegations of the interest groups have been based largely on opinions unsupported by facts. An ailing mainstream of our media have perpetually propagandized false issues and have created an anti-business image for Southern Arizona.
The following five questions need to be answered by all the public interest groups who have filed or been a party to legal claims on forcing Government Agencies to examine or re-examine permits authorizing mining, real-estate developments, cattle ranches, the building of new roads and infrastructure projects.
- Are you aware that your proposals, policies and lawsuits are a source of coercion of the Federal Government to engage in feudalism which involves limiting the rights of the property owner?
- What has your Not-for-Profit agency done to enhance the population of endangered species? Endangered species should be raised in captivity to be introduced into an alternate habitat where they could grow and thrive without conflict to a planned community and mining projects now and for the future. On the same note, what has your interest group done to encourage or support the engineering developments to design and install a system to recharge the San Pedro aquifer that would make certain on meeting the public need for water?
- What right does your interest group have on violating the United States Constitution Bill of Rights, Article V: “No person….be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation…”
- Does your interest group realize on filing a legal complaint that would force a government agency to deny or revoke a permit for development of privately owned land could decrease the value of that privately owned property?
- Is your Not-for-Profit group the instigator for legal complaints to be filed on forcing Government agencies to examine or re-examine a permit that results in wrongful collateral costs to that landowner? Is your interest group prepared to pay the landowner “just compensation” for the value of the property either when fully developed or what that property would be capable of earning?
Until such time, instigators of claims requiring the Federal Government to review permits that cause inherent costs to the landowner, answer the five questions and we respectfully ask that your anti-development activities to cease and desist. Additionally, in the interest of the social and economic well-being of Southern Arizona, we believe that all the legal claims your interest group have submitted be voluntarily dropped. These actions are essential for the prosperity and well-being of Southern Arizona. There are better ways to ensure for the protection of the environment, the protection of endangered species and to ensure for a bountiful aquifer, than to cloud the issues with frivolous lawsuits.
Attached lists the organizations and individuals who support this Proclamation.
It is hopeful that other organizations and individuals will adopt the goals of the proclamation as part of their concerns. This is the first step to develop a harmonious relationship with everyone to use our scientific knowledge to protect and utilize our natural resources. There is no need for stopping land use to protect the environment, as scientific and engineering knowledge has many options to ensure for protecting natures environment while not destroying the economy