Across the US, city ordinances, land use plans,
expanded inspections, increased fees, draconian fines and zoning codes were
poisoned by UN Agenda 21 implementation laws adopted by States in the 2000s.
These rogue ordinances have not been repealed. They are surfacing in lawsuits
brought by homeowners. States rubber-stamped “Regional Commissions” and adopted
UN standards designed to undermine homeowner property rights and citizen
control. All cities and counties need to revert back to their Pre-UN Agenda 21
ordinances that were in place in the 1980s and 1990s.
The issue is over the state’s Unsafe Building Law, which the town adopted, and its Property Maintenance Code. They do not always agree, and it’s unclear which applies when, the case contends.
CITY ORDERED TO STOP WEAPONIZING
FINES AGAINST HOMEOWNERS. 'Illegal quest to force
them to sell their properties to developer', by Bob Unruh, 9/12/18, WND.
“Today’s opinion in another rebuke to the city of
Charlestown’s reckless disregard for state law,” said Anthony Sanders, an IJ
attorney. His group represents the remaining homeowners in the Pleasant Ridge
subdivision.
The district court found that the town was not required to follow the UBL,
even though it had been adopted. But the court also said homeowners likely
would prevail on other sections of the law, so it imposed an injunction
preventing further action.
IJ Senior Attorney Jeff Rowes said the residents of Pleasant Ridge “have been
under assault from the city for years, and this is just the latest rebuke to
its unconstitutional and immoral effort to wipe them off the map.”
Lawyers at
the Institute
for Justice say they have won a battle with
Charlestown, Indiana, and its plan to force property owners in one entire
neighborhood to sell to a developer.
“This includes a cap on the
amount of fines, and a mandate that fines can only be issued against
recalcitrant property owners,” he continued.
“The city has wantonly
ignored those protections through issuing immediate fines against property
owners in its illegal quest to force them to sell their properties to developer
John Neace,” Sanders said.
However, the city was
using both laws to nitpick at property owners then fine them huge amounts to
force them to sell to the developer, the case alleges.
The Indiana Court of Appeals
said the homeowners likely also would prevail on that UBL count.
The decision on the
neighborhood’s preliminary injunction now goes back to Judge Jason Mount to
rule on how the Unsafe Building Law applies in the case and how it prevents the
city from issuing fines, IJ said.
IJ explained: “The case
arises out of the city’s horrific practice of fining property owners in the
Pleasant Ridge neighborhood in an effort to force them out of their homes in
order to have the entire area redeveloped by local businessman John Neace.
Because of the city’s
illegal code enforcement practices, Neace was able to purchase almost two
hundred properties for only $10,000 per lot, far less than their tax-assessed
values. Many of these sales were made from landlords who had been fined
thousands of dollars in violation of the Unsafe Building Law.”
“We now look forward to
having the trial court issue a new injunction against the city that includes a
requirement that it follow state law.”
The court ruling said:
“We conclude that the city is required to comply with the UBL and that the city
must enforce the PMC within the confines and strictures of the UBL.
Accordingly, the trial court clearly erred in finding that the city is not
required to follow the UBL.
“Because the trial court
found that the UBL was not mandatory, the trial court did not address how the
UBL impacts the city’s enforcement of the PMC. Some of the
provisions in the UBL
are permissive, others are mandatory.
“We remand for the trial
court to consider how the UBL and the PMC work together in light of our
conclusion that the city is bound to enforce the PMC in accordance with the
UBL, and to reconsider the homeowners’ claim that the city’s manner of
enforcing the PMC violates the UBL,” the court said.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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