Builders Mobilize for Senate Vote on Property Rights Bill

WASHINGTON, July 7 /PRNewswire/ --  With a Senate vote next week on the
Private Property Rights Implementation Act (H.R. 1534) hanging in the balance,
the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is launching an all-out
effort this week to urge passage of the bill that would finally provide
property owners with the same legal status as other petitioners to the
nation's federal courts. NAHB's intense grassroots efforts in support of H.R.
1534 is being reinforced by a 10-state radio ad campaign.

At stake is the ability of property owners to defend their constitutional
rights in a federal court without going bankrupt or waiting decades for a
judge and jury to hear their case.

"This legislation puts property owners on a level playing field with other
individuals asserting constitutional rights, by bringing balance to the
regulation of private property," said Jerry Howard, NAHB's senior staff
president for government affairs.

The bill was approved by a vote of 248-178 in the House of Representatives
last year and was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year.

The bill represents congressional responses to local, state and federal
governments' continued practice of delaying takings claims hearings for years
by forcing property owners to exhaust all "administrative remedies" before the
claim can be heard in court. Unlike any other citizen, landowners must
maneuver their way over numerous hurdles while they incur thousands of dollars
in attorney's fees just to have their day in court.

The bill would not affect local, state or federal land use regulations.
Property owners would still be required to try to resolve their differences
with the agency in question. However, once the agency has denied their appeal
or waiver attempt, the property owner would have the right to go to federal
court to prove that they deserve compensation for their taking. A property
owner would be given the choice of either pursuing state and federal claims in
state court or pursuing only his or her federal takings claims in federal
court.

Currently, citizens seeking to assert their Fifth Amendment property rights
are routinely required to spend years, and considerable sums of money, seeking
"administrative remedies" before their case can even be heard in court.  Many
have found that these administrative procedures can go on indefinitely, thus
denying them access to the federal courts.  In Florida, for example, Ann and
Richard Reahard, spent 14 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal
bills just for the opportunity to have their argument heard in a federal
court.

Prospects for passage of H.R. 1534 improved dramatically in December of 1997
when the U.S. Supreme Court established the right of citizens to bring their
local land-use cases before the federal courts when constitutional issues are
at stake in City of Chicago v. International College of Surgeons. Opponents of
H.R. 1534 had argued that such federal jurisdiction was inappropriate.

"We expect opponents of this bill will use rhetoric, inaccuracies and half-
truths to attempt to defeat the measure,"  Howard said.  "In reality, though,
this bill is merely about reestablishing a basic constitutional right for
property owners: the right to have their day in federal court -- the same
right other Americans enjoy.  If the Senate passes the bill it will provide a
simple remedy that will ensure the constitutional rights of all Americans who
own property."

 SOURCE  National Association of Home Builders

CO:  National Association of Home Builders

ST:  District of Columbia

IN:  CST RLT

SU:  LEG

07/07/98 17:43 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com