Social Engineering Bill in Senate may force You into a City

S.1619 - Livable Communities Act of 2009 Passed in Senate

Official Summary

8/6/2009--Introduced.Livable Communities Act of 2009 - Establishes in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) an Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (OSHC).

Establishes in the executive branch an independent Interagency Council on Sustainable Communities.

Requires the OSHC Director to establish a program to make comprehensive planning grants and sustainability challenge grants to eligible entities (partnerships between a consortium of units of general local government and an eligible partner, which may be a metropolitan planning organization, a rural planning organization, a regional council, or a state).

Requires the use of a comprehensive planning grant to carry out a project to:

(1) coordinate land use, housing, transportation, and infrastructure planning processes across jurisdictions and agencies;

(2) identify potential regional partnerships for developing and implementing a comprehensive regional plan;

(3) conduct or update housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy, and environmental assessments to determine regional needs and promote sustainable development;

(4) develop or update a comprehensive regional plan or goals and strategies to implement an existing comprehensive regional plan; and

(5) implement local zoning and other code changes necessary to implement a comprehensive regional plan and promote sustainable development.Requires the use of a sustainability challenge grant to:

(1) promote integrated transportation, housing, energy, and economic development activities carried out across policy and governmental jurisdictions;

(2) promote sustainable and location-efficient development; and

(3) implement projects identified in a comprehensive regional plan. Directs the OSHC Director to study and report to specified congressional committees on incentives for encouraging lenders to make, and homebuyers and homeowners to participate in, energy-efficient mortgages and location-efficient mortgages.

Republicans Blast ‘Livable Communities’ Bill As Washington-Based Central Planning for Cities and Towns

The Senate Banking Committee passed the Livable Communities Act on Tuesday, moving the bill one step closer to final passage. The bill creates $4-billion in neighborhood planning grants for 'sustainable' living projects and a new federal office to oversee them.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010

By Matt Cover

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Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut at a news conference on health care on Dec. 14, 2009. The five-term Democrat has decided not to run for re-election. (AP File Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

(CNSNews.com) – The Senate Banking Committee passed the Livable Communities Act on Tuesday, moving the bill one step closer to final passage. The bill creates $4 billion in neighborhood planning grants for “sustainable” living projects and a new federal office to oversee them.

Similar legislation in the House has been criticized by Republicans on the House Budget Committee, who charge that “the program’s aim is to impose a Washington-based, central planning model on localities across the country.”

In the Senate version, written by outgoing Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the Livable Communities Act would designate $4 billion to aid local governments in planning high-density, walkable neighborhoods.

Premised on helping local governments to combat suburban sprawl and traffic congestion, the bill sets up two separate grant programs. One, known as Comprehensive Planning Grants, would go to cities and counties to assist them in carrying out such plans as the following:

-- “(1) coordinate land use, housing, transportation, and infrastructure planning processes across jurisdictions and agencies” and

-- “(3) conduct or update housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy, and environmental assessments to determine regional needs and promote sustainable development; [and]

-- “… (5) implement local zoning and other code changes necessary to implement a comprehensive regional plan and promote sustainable development.”

The second grant type – Sustainability Challenge Grants – funds local efforts to:

--“(1) promote integrated transportation, housing, energy, and economic development activities carried out across policy and governmental jurisdictions;

-- (2) promote sustainable and location-efficient development; and

-- (3) implement projects identified in a comprehensive regional plan.”

To administer and regulate these new grants, the bill creates the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (OSHC) within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The legislation is designed to prod local communities toward high-density, public transit-oriented neighborhoods that concentrate large numbers of people into small geographic areas connected by train and bus networks.

These high-density neighborhoods would be combined with high-density commercial districts that – in theory – would reduce the need for daily driving and commuting.

In describing the Livable Communities Act, Dodd has said that “with sustainable development, our communities will cut traffic congestion; reduce greenhouse gas emissions and gasoline consumption; protect rural areas and green spaces; revitalize existing Main Streets and urban centers; and create more affordable housing.”

In his opening statement on Tuesday, Dodd said, “Over the past 50 years, poorly coordinated transportation, community development and housing policies led to growth away from urban areas and rural town centers. Between 1980 and 2000, the growth of the largest 99 metro areas in the United States consumed 16 million acres of rural land – about an acre for every new household.”

Dodd said that his bill would try to entice localities to move away from this model of suburban home- and land-ownership and toward a centrally planned model where local government officials make housing, business, and transportation decisions that steer residential and economic growth into designated high-density areas.

Dodd said that the new centralized development model would reduce traffic congestion, create jobs, and make residential and commercial development more environmentally friendly.

“This legislation provides for planning and capital grants so that regions can coordinate transportation, housing, and community development policies to reduce traffic congestion, generate economic growth, create and preserve affordable housing, and meet environmental and energy goals,” he explained.

Dodd told CNSNews.com that the grants were available for the taking, saying that the program is voluntary and intended to let localities build planned communities without having to worry about changing economic conditions.

“The question is are the resources and the expertise available for people then to do the kind of planning – that’s all we’re talking about here – so they can plan better in these communities,” he said. “It’s not a radical idea. What’s radical is not doing anything about it.

“The problems aren’t going to go away, the demographics aren’t going to change because the economy’s down,” Dodd said.

“Some communities may be able to do it – this is not a mandate on anybody – but just merely saying we understand your needs, we understand the constraints you’re operating under, we understand your appetite to want to do something about this, and here’s an example where three levels of government – national, state, and local – can work with each other towards a common goal,” he added.

Dodd said the OSHC would not be making planning decisions for city and county governments. Instead, he said that the office – in addition to administering the grants – would function as a resource for localities seeking to do the planning themselves.

“That’s kind of the resource capacity for the communities,” Dodd said. “It’s not standards. We’re not going to apply standards. We’re going to stay far away from that. We’re not going to sit here and set [development] standards because you’ve got to let the flexibility – rural communities, suburban, large urban areas – they need to decide themselves what they want to do in terms of how they link together housing, transit, and energy needs in their communities.

“They ought to be given the total flexibility to decide how that responds,” said Dodd.

Social Engineering Bill In Senate Will Force You Into City

Published on 09-20-2010

A social engineering bill to restrict residence in the suburbs and rural areas and force Americans into city centers has passed the United States Senate Banking Committee and is on the fast track to passage in the Senate.

The bill is called the Livable Communities Act (SB 1619) and it was introduced by corruptocrat outgoing Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). It seeks to fulfill the United Nation’s plan Agenda 21, adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and signed onto by “New World Order” President George H.W. Bush.

This bill is designed to destroy your community. According to the non-profit American Policy Center the bill:

* Is a blueprint for the transformation of our society into total Federal control.
* Will enforce Federal Sustainable Development zoning and control of local communities.
* Will create a massive new “development” bureaucracy.
* Will drive up the cost of energy to heat and cool your home.
* Will drive up the cost of gasoline as a way to get you out of your car.
* Will force you to spend thousands of dollars on your home in order to comply.

A carrot and stick policy will be used to get your local government to sign on. The carrot is billions of dollars in grants available if your local government agrees to amend zoning laws that restrict housing in outlying areas, forcing people to give up their homes and land and move into the city center.

The stick will be denial of the funds and bad publicity generated by “Green” organizations criticizing government officials for turning down free money.

The rub is the grants will come with strings attached that force local governments to bend to the will of the Feds.

The idea of these social engineering initiatives is to force people to live in a congested area in high rise buildings with housing on the upper floors and stores on the bottom. The whole area will be linked by mass transit creating the “utopian” communities loved by socialists.

The result will be higher costs for housing (because overcrowding will make housing space a premium) and goods and services (because of less choice and competition) and less freedom to move about (because cars won’t be necessary and parking space will be prohibitively expensive).

As we pointed out here President Barack Obama is — not surprisingly — an advocate of this type of nonsense. And his cabinet is populated by elitists who think they know better than you how you should live.

It is imperative that you call your two Senators immediately and tell them to oppose Dodd’s SB1619.

Washington Cities and Counties Conform to the Kyoto Protocol and Climate Policies

By Research Mom In a quest to find a conservative way to be “green” some politicians are compromising and signing contracts with non-governmental entities and accepting funding which ultimately bind cities, counties, and states to radical environmental policies.

Regulations and laws continue to be forced onto us by leaders that may not realize they have unwittingly committed us to anti-Constitutional globalist plans.
Read more...


ICLEI Primer: Your Town and Freedom Threatened

By Freedom Advocates Right now, in your town and neighborhood, policies are being implemented that will ultimately eliminate your freedoms and destroy your way of life. You need to know what's going on to stop this process.

Many town officials are selling us out to global regional development with help from the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI): Local Governments for Sustainability. ICLEI is used as one of the mechanisms to undo the political recognition of unalienable rights.
Read more...

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-5415-N-01]
Notice of HUD’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)

Policy Requirements and General Section to
HUD’s FY2010 NOFAs for Discretionary Programs

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HUD.

ACTION: Notice of HUD’s FY2010 NOFA Policy Requirements and General Section to HUD’s FY2010 NOFAs for Discretionary Programs (notice).

SUMMARY: This notice provides prospective applicants for HUD’s competitive funding with the opportunity to become familiar with the General Section of HUD’s FY2010 NOFAs, in advance of publication of any FY2010 NOFAs.

It also describes changes to HUD’s policy priorities based on its new Strategic Plan for FY2010-2015, as well as submission requirements for FY2010.

This information is provided to assist prospective applicants in planning successful applications.

Interagency Ocean Policy Task
Obama complies with Agenda 21 and expands federal power

By Henry Lamb Sunday, August 1, 2010

Listen here

President Obama’s Executive Order 13547 issued July 19, further extends federal power, embraces global governance, diminishes the rights and privileges of individuals, and brings the United Stateshttp://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/c...B33DB.7C0E08A0 into compliance with Agenda 21, Chapter 17.6, which says:

“Each coastal State should consider establishing, or where necessary strengthening, appropriate coordinating mechanisms (such as a high-level policy planning body) for integrated management and sustainable development of coastal and marine areas….”

The National Ocean Council created by the Executive Order creates this mechanism - and much more.

The genius of the American system of governance created by the U.S. Constitution is the delicate balance of power between the federal government, state and local governments, and the people. The founders recognized the people as the source of power; the people came first. It was the people who organized states. The states created a federal government and through the Constitution, limited the power of the new government to those specific powers set forth in Article 1, Section 8. All unspecified powers were explicitly retained by the states or the people.

In the first 200 years, the United States of America produced greater wealth and prosperity than the rest of the world had produced in 2000 years. Why? Because individuals were free to pursue their own individual happiness.

Throughout its entire history, however, there have been those who believe that government is, or should be, the source of power; that the people are, or should be, subjects of the state. Since the 1970s, these people have used “environmental protectionhttp://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/c...B33DB.7C0E08A0” as an excuse to expand the power of government. They argued that free people, in their pursuit of personal happiness, were polluting the environment. Therefore, government had to restrain free people in order to save the earth.

Their arguments prevailed in Congress, in the schools, and throughout society. The result has been ever- expanding government power that continually diminishes individual freedom, which results in less investment in the pursuit of individual happiness and a gradual slowdown in the growth of prosperity for everyone.

Once, Americans could do whatever they could conceive, restrained only by the possible consequences of infringing their neighbors’ right to do the same. Now, Americans must get permission from multiple layers of government to do anything that produces income, pay multiple taxes on whatever income is generated, and comply with expensive regulations that govern every activity that might be pursued. Consequently, the individual entrepreneurial spirit is steadily being replaced by the ever-expanding reach of government’s ambition to manage society.

President Obama’s most recent Executive Order is another example of government’s ever-expanding reach. First, Obama created an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force in June of 2009. This group worked a year to produce a report that recommends how government can better protect the environment relating to the oceans and the Great Lakeshttp://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/c...B33DB.7C0E08A0. The Executive Order essentially adopts the recommendations in the report as national policy, and creates a new bureaucracy called the National Ocean Council to implement all the recommendations in the report.

Controlling activities on land that affects the ocean, and ratification of the Convention on the Law of the Sea

The two most egregious recommendations are: controlling activities on land that affects the ocean, and ratification of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Before America became a nanny- state subject to the tyrannical decrees of the federal government, people were subject to laws that forced polluters to make whole anyone who was harmed. People who used their own property in the pursuit of their own individual happiness who inadvertently, through negligence, or deliberately polluted water that harmed a neighbor could be brought to court and forced to pay damages.

Now, the federal government ignores private property rights by requiring government approval of any proposed use of private property, payment of fees for the privilege, and payment of penalties for any infraction of a myriad of rules that govern the activities that government may allow.

The trampling of private property rights is not as bad, however, as the subjugation that would result from the ratification of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. This treaty was rejected by Ronald Reagan in 1982.

Despite the so-called improvements to the treaty boasted by the Clinton administration, the U.S. Senate rejected it in 2000. President Bush tried to have it ratified, but the Senate rejected it again in 2004. Now Obama is trying again to force this horrible treaty down America’s throat.

This treaty would give the U.N. power to regulate activity within our territorial seas (Article 2, (3)); it would give the U.N. the power to levy taxes in the form of application fees ($250,000) and royalties; it provides no benefits that the United States does not already enjoy. Yet, the Obama administration has set up this new National Ocean Council to convince the Senate to ratify the treaty.

This treaty is another expansion of global governance, which is defined by the U.N. to be that “framework of rules, institutions, and practices that limits the behavior of individuals, organizations, and companies” (U.N. Development Report, 1999, p. 34).

Obama’s expansion of government is taking the nation in the wrong direction. The federal government should be reduced in size, scope, and function. The federal government should be pushed back inside the bottle of those limited powers defined in Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. States and individuals should reclaim the power given to them by the Constitution and guaranteed by the 10th Amendment. No elected official – including President Obama – is immune to the power of the ballot box. Those in power who support Obama’s brand of foolishness should be forced to find a new career path next November.

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You know, Lawyers, EPA officials and Environmentalists are on Shakespeare list...