‘Don’t you even think about it’

After running into a few technical glitches, Senator John Bonacic’s Upper Delaware River Greenway plan will most likely wend its way back to the governor’s desk and be signed into law (see page 3). In the meantime, property rights advocate Noel van Swol has been making the rounds of town board meetings, seeking to dissuade local townships from participating in the proposed greenway.

As we understand it, van Swol’s fear is that a greenway would be a kind of Trojan horse, masquerading as, in the bill’s words, a “collaborative effort to protect and enhance the environment and economy of this special corridor,” while in fact ceding control over our property to New York State, the National Park Service, and worst of all (now in van Swol’s words) “radical environmental groups and the ‘no growth’ crowd.”

A fear of government intrusion on property rights is not to be sneezed at, especially in the wake of the infamous Kelo vs. New London decision of 2005, which paved the way for government to seize land by eminent domain if it deems that it would benefit the public. But in this case, we feel that van Swol’s attack is misplaced.

To begin with, the bill in question, S6379, is an almost disappointingly innocuous piece of legislation. (To read it, visit public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menuf.cgiand type “S6379” in the box). It sets up and funds an Upper Delaware River Greenway Council, whose purpose is to “undertake all necessary actions to facilitate the creation of an Upper Delaware River Greenway.” After four years of study, discussion and collaboration with local municipalities, the council is to come up with a detailed plan for such a greenway that is to be submitted, first, for approval to participating municipalities, and then, if so approved, to the New York State Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The act contains a sunset clause, causing it to expire on April 1, 2013.

By trying to talk municipalities out of participating in this plan for a plan, van Swol is not so much fighting against a greenway as he is fighting to stop people from even thinking about it. Van Swol says that an Upper Delaware River Greenway will threaten property rights, but he hasn’t even seen the blueprint for it, which won’t emerge for four years. And his argument that we should refuse to consider a greenway just because somebody might someday tamper with the legislation and put something bad in it, is a stretch. On that basis, one could argue against any law ever written.

Van Swol also ignores the fact that government is neither the only, nor perhaps even the biggest, threat to private property rights nowadays. Our current fight against the power line proposed by New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI) has taught us that. In the 21st century, the individual property owner must be wary of two behemoths: the government, and multinational corporations given eminent domain authority by the government. As individuals, we can’t prevail against either of these, but we may occasionally succeed in pitting them against each other to gain our ends. Ironically, if we do fight off NYRI, it may well be our Wild and Scenic River designation—so assiduously resisted by van Swol years ago—that proves to be our trump card. The greenway designation might, if properly designed, perform a similar function in similar circumstances, which are likely to become more frequent as a growing metropolitan population eyes our land increasingly as a convenient (and expendable) conduit for northern resources.

In the light of the above considerations, we would propose the following. Instead of playing spoiler for everybody else, why doesn’t van Swol join in? He could convince Fremont to join the council, and get it to appoint him as its council member. In that position, he could make sure that property owners’ interests were represented in the detailed plan that emerges four years down the road. And while we do not agree with van Swol that the National Park Service has a nefarious plan to turn the Upper Delaware into its own private fiefdom, if we’re wrong, a seat on the council would put him in a position to head them off at the pass.

We feel that van Swol’s ferocious intellect and formidable research capabilities could play a valuable role in the Upper Delaware River Greenway Council’s efforts to develop a plan that encourages economic development and enhances our quality of life, without ceding undue power to state and federal government. And if he doesn’t like the results, he’ll have another chance four years from now to take the dog and pony show back out on the road. How about it, Noel?

Also in this issue:

• Fighting animal cruelty

Dr. Punnybone

Marshall Awe