During the March hearing on the county's proposed general plan update, Supervisor Bill Horn said, "Down-zoning without compensation in my mind is stealing," referring to the down-zoning of more than 13,000 acres of land as stealing the value bought and paid for by property owners.

Supervisor Ron Roberts disagreed: "That's a personal opinion, not a legal statement."

What do you think?

During most public hearings, most rights are forfeited because most property owners don't attend, don't testify and don't protest in writing to their elected officials. Bear in mind: "All political power derives from what you can do to or for someone." It works both ways: what politicians can do to you, and what you can do to ---- or for ---- them.

Using county figures, about 42,000 presently zoned dwelling units are to be eliminated under the new general plan. However, according to county consultant Keyser Marston, only 7,500 units that could feasibly be built will be eliminated. The land value of each potential dwelling unit is estimated to be $54,000, so by eliminating 7,500 units, the stolen value is "only" $405 million. Depending upon which official set of figures you use, the collective loss ranges from $405 million to $2.68 billion.

The county Department of Planning and Land Use's PowerPoint presentation states, "The data indicates that the number of buildable units is not an important factor to land value in the areas that would be downzoned." Mind-boggling!

Supervisor Dianne Jacob said she is obligated to protect both property owners and other "stakeholders." She respects "everybody's property rights, people who own property today and community members that live in the communities. ... I try to balance those rights ... the community's interests, which are the people who live in the communities and balance their rights, too ---- the community as a whole."

Dianne's confused. The primary purpose of government is the protection of individual rights, not community rights. Community rights are not only impossible to define, but impossible to balance equally for every man, woman and child.

After $16 million expended, the supervisors feel they can produce a 30-year plan superior to the 70 years and hundreds of billions of dollars the Soviet Union spent on its failed land-use planning.

Supervisor Greg Cox unintentionally makes a compelling case for why long-term plans can never work, when he acknowledges changes in laws over the last several decades; and with all the new rules applying, our resource agencies probably have control over zoning in portions of the county. "The present land-use designations don't equate to reality," Cox said. "... The existing plan is not only out of date, but not in conformance with state law."

He could have added that the present plan has doubled to 41,000 the number of people on the county's housing wait list, proving the old Soviet maxim, "You can have planning or housing ---- but not both."

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FRED SCHNAUBELT, a former San Diego City Council member, is president of Citizens for Private Property Rights.

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