Dear editor:

On Nov. 20 I attended a Park County Planning and Zoning public meeting about the upcoming regulation portion of the Park County Land Use Plan run by Joy Hill, county planning director, and staff of three. Ms. Hill stated, “You’re going to hear people scream (property rights) from the rooftops as well as (conservation).” Implying the government, whom she represents, is somehow the only sensible entity playing referee between extreme sides, resulting in a winner and loser.

The loser won’t be the government. The (conservation) people will gain if the fields stay open for their free entertainment. The (property rights) people will lose to regulation. Value is always lost when a landowner loses rights over their labor and land. They also lose freedom, along with everyone else.

The dangled carrot to encourage acceptance of the new laws is the promise of stopping growth. However, growth is inevitable in a desirable area. The true outcome of regulation is increased cost of development, and more expense to farm and ranch; the combination encouraging the sale of land to wealthy developers.

So, who will win? Government. The ones actively trying to convince us we NEED more regulation. New hires will be necessary to enforce new regulation, and rising property values will all result in higher taxes.

If you don’t think this is how it works, why did Ms. Hill state in a 1/16/23 article in the Cody Enterprise “They’ve obliterated the big game overlay.”? [They, in this case are the property rights screamers]. “Our number one goal was to be transparent and reflect what we heard from the public.” The landowners were never properly surveyed. The staff didn’t state in their survey, “We will force agriculture lands to stay open. Your taxes will increase, and you’ll all lose property rights.” That would be transparent!

Margaret Lohman

Powell