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Rep. Roscoe Bartlett's Journey Through Hallowed Ground Bill is "An Attractive Alternative" to Badly Flawed Bill
Heritage Foundation Releases New Study
Washington, Apr 18 -
The Heritage Foundation today released a report that found a bill introduced by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett to establish the Journey Through Hallowed Ground as a National Heritage Area is “an attractive alternative” to the “badly flawed” bill H.R. 319. The Journey Through Hallowed Ground is an effort to preserve and protect historic heritage sites along a 175-mile corridor in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Congressman Bartlett’s bill H.R. 1270 is also known as the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Education and Tourism Act. Backgrounder #2025 “Another Federal Assault on Property Rights: The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Act,” was written by Ronald Utt, Herbert and Joyce Morgan Senior Research Fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. “When I first heard of the 175-mile Journey Through Hallowed Ground, I wondered why I didn’t think of it first,” said Congressman Bartlett. “I support creating a National Heritage Area to protect the historic sites and promote tourism in the four-state region between the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania and Monticello in Virginia. I have consistently stated that any federal legislation to create a National Heritage Area should retain local control of its management by Marylanders concerning sites in Maryland. I also believe that if land is taken for historic preservation, than affected property owners should be compensated at fair market value. I introduced H.R. 1270 because the legislation advancing through Congress fails on both counts. The Heritage Foundation has a long-standing reputation for scholarship and analysis based upon the principles established in the Constitution. I’m pleased the report validated my objections to H.R. 319 and support H.R. 1270 as an attractive alternative.” Excerpts from the Heritage Foundation report: “The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Act [H.R. 319] is a badly flawed bill. “The bill would give a handful of Virginia environmentalists and wealthy landowners extraordinary powers over how private property can be used in a broad swath of land stretching from southern Pennsylvania through western Maryland south to Charlottesville in central Virginia. This group has organized itself as the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, a not-for-profit Virginia corporation. H.R. 319 would provide the partnership $1 million of federal money per year to operate this multistate land use planning exercise. “…The original version of H.R. 319 included a series of cosmetic property rights ‘acknowledgements’ in Sections 10 and 11, but most of these were removed when the bill was marked up in committee on March 12, 2007… even symbolic acknowledgments of property rights are too threatening to the bill's supporters, and the Democrats on the committee voted unanimously to diminish even these. “H.R. 319 specifically identifies the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership as the ‘management entity’…federal authorization, federal funding, influential supporters, and National Park Service association make it a major player in land use decisions in the communities that are ultimately included in the scheme...the key organizations with seats on the partnership board have actively advocated no-growth policies in the region and have often participated in local zoning hearings and land use decisions to stop proposed residential developments. “The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Education and Tourism Act (H.R. 1270), introduced by Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R–MD), is an attractive alternative to H.R. 319. It would provide greater property rights protections to landowners in the area, including a requirement that local governments wishing to participate in the national heritage area provide fair-market-value compensation to property owners if their property is devalued as a result of government action.” Full text of the report, Backgrounder #2025 “Another Federal Assault on Property Rights: The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Act,” is available at http://www.heritage.org/Research/SmartGrowth/bg2025.cfm