The 'Property Rights' Hypocrisy

"Property rights" is the favored, two-word battle cry for those who want to kill promising new Smart Growth ideas. It is heard most loudly around undeveloped farmland, forest, and open space beyond settled areas, and it mostly comes from developers waiting to make a killing on land sales and construction projects in those areas, which are so valuable only because taxpayers have paid for the roads, sewers, and schools that make them possible in the first place. But when those same taxpayers want to protect their investment with reasonable laws or zoning ordinances, the developers tell the community to get lost.