Federal Land Grab Comes to California at Vail Lake
by Kristin Tate 30 Apr 2014

Americans have become increasingly concerned about the federal government's seizure of privately-held lands and property, especially after the Cliven Bundy incident in Nevada. Now another land owner, Bill Johnson of Temecula, California, claims his property at Vail Lake, the largest privately-owned lake in California, is being threatened by the county, state, and federal governments.

Johnson purchased 11,000 acres of land in Riverside County over 17 years ago, including Vail Lake, encompassing over 1,000 square surface acres of water. Now Johnson claims various levels of government are trying to seize the property, using intimidation under the guise of environmental concerns.

Johnson told Breitbart News: "The habitat is free of any endangered species. The government just wants it because it’s part of their 'core area' due to the properties of water and enormous size."

He mentioned that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) currently manages land parcels on either side of Vail Lake.

"The EPA needed to come up with 42,000 acres in the area to 'protect' the kangaroo rats," Johnson said. "They intimated property owners into giving up their land."

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"There's a common thread between Johnson's situation and the Bundys' situation," Hunter told Breitbart News. "The heavy hand of government has played in both of those cases."

The land of over 15,000 property owners in Johnson's county was ultimately bought off by the Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP), an entity comprised of state and federal government agencies. The MSHCP told land owners that for environmental reasons, their property could not be developed, split, or farmed.

"They devalued properties," Johnson said. "The government told property owners that selling to the state would be voluntary. They said, 'If you don't sell to us, you won’t be able to sell it to anyone.' The land became worthless and devalued since you can’t farm it or build on it."

Hunter argued that the federal Endangered Species Act allows counties to bully residents into giving up their properties.

"If the government says you can’t use your property for anything, they've essentially taken your property from you," he said. "Essentially, you're not a real property owner. Then the government has the best of all worlds--they paralyze your use of the property but they still demand property tax from you."

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Currently, the BLM has control over about two-thirds of Riverside County, according to Johnson. "The county claims they need the land to protect lots of rare species," Johnson said. "But there have been studies done that that just isn't true."

The MSHCP further claims the land should be under government control, since Johnson owes $4.75 million in property taxes, penalties and interest on overdue fees. Johnson has largely refused to compensate the agencies trying to seize his property. He believes that the tax assessments would be fair if he were able to develop or farm his own land--but because the MSHCP will not allow this, his property value is substantially less.

Johnson said, "How can you pay taxes on property you can do nothing with? The government will sneer at you and say, 'It's our property. You need to pay taxes, but the property is ours in the end.' During the 17 years that I've owned Vail Lake, I have not built one single thing on the property. The minute I bought my land, they started taking all my rights away. They stripped the zoning, general plan, and specific plan for the property and open space designation, depriving it of its value."

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More:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Calif...ghts-California

Quote: Cincinnatus wrote in post #2

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How beautiful. When the Bolsheviks seized private property after their coup d'état they did it under legal cover of an edict issued by Lenin. Seizures by our collectivists are being done "legally" under edicts issued by some alphabet agency "protecting" some insignificant species or claiming to protect natural resources. Our public thefts are done in a far more gentlemanly way, though the effect is the same; and, after all, who opposes clean water or preserving some "endangered" species?

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Zitat

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"Of the 264 million acres under BLM management, some 130- to 140-million acres are worthy of consideration as treasured lands. These areas [are] roughly equivalent in size to Colorado and Wyoming combined."
–BLM's Treasured Landscapes paper Page 1

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Zitat

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The second component of the BLM's Treasured-Landscape vision would involve changing the composition of the BLM's portfolio. Page 6

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Notice how the BLM refers to stolen land as their portfolio.