Historic Preservation v. Property Rights?

Peyton Knight has written a critique of the Trust for Historic Preservation, “Historically Untrustworthy: How the Trust for Historic Preservation Works Against Property Rights,” for the Capital Research Center:

“The National Park Service and others will use the National Register as a bludgeon against the property owner and trample his property rights, if they can. To them, your property, once listed, is just a ‘resource’; to them, it is not a home.”

Last April homeowner Peter Blackman made this appeal to members of Congress at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on National Parks. Blackman objects to the Park Service’s decision to place his home on the National Register, a federal historic designation that carries significant regulatory baggage. He says he has become a virtual tenant on his own property and that his most minor renovation plans are now subject to the review of federal bureaucrats.

That is just the way the National Trust for Historic Preservation would have it….

I guess some folks don’t believe historic rights are as worthy of protection as historic buildings.

Read all about this particular threat by downloading Peyton’s paper here.



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