Some in D.C. suburbs taking public land

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

CHANTILLY -- Officials in the Washington suburbs are struggling to keep up with people who are taking over small pieces of public land for their own use, such as building a fence or putting up a disc golf course.

The incursion of public space by private landowners has caused consternation among neighbors and some park officials.

"We call it encroachment. That's just a very kind, politically correct word for trespassing," said Michael Rierson, resource protection chief for the Fairfax County Park Authority.

Officials say they lack the resources to keep up with all the violations, meaning they can linger unchecked for years.



Read more: http://www.inrich.com/content/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-06-24-0059.html

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I know this is minor in the grand scheme of things, but this flat-out rubs me the wrong way just on principle...

[hobbit709]

1. The opposite of "public domain" seizure

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Adverse Possession

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession

You take possession of certain real property, use it "openly and notoriously" without being ejected or removed for ten or twenty years, and it becomes yours without paying for it.

[happyslug]

9. You also have to say it is YOUR PROPERTY and the doctrine does NOT apply to the State.

Adverse possession applies when someone holds himself out as the OWNER of property. It does NOT apply if he is only a trespasser. Thus the person who uses a piece of property for his own use, does NOT become the owner of that property UNLESS he excludes others. If he just mows when he mows his lawn, knowing it is NOT his, Adverse Possession does not come into play.

Furthermore Adverse Possession does NOT apply to the State or other Governmental units, on the grounds the state can not always occupy its property (i.e. not know someone else has a claim to the property so to challenge that claim within the time period for Adverse possession).

[daggahead]

3. I wouldn't mind doing this

and planting fruits and vegetables as a community garden coup!

[L0oniX]

4. Better buy a gun because you will need it to keep others from stealing your food.

:evilfrown:

[pattmarty]

5. Yep, I agree. Ya know it ain't all the "brown people in DC" that......

....are doing this, it's the rich motherfuckers in the "Chevy Chase suburbs" that are doing the APPROPRIATING.

[Burma Jones]

6. I have a little of this, sort of.......

My house backs up to an open space designed to help funnel rain water away slowly rather than have all that water head straight to Seneca Creek, and then to the Potomac. There is a flat area which is partly my lawn and partly the open space before it drops off to the drainage area. If I were to build a fence, it would appear to cut my back yard in half. Now, I am expected to mow and otherwise maintain this area right up to where the land drops off, and so I do without any problem. However, I have planted a garden that encroaches on this space, as have many of my neighbors. But, it's the space which I am expected to maintain, not the publicly maintained space. There have been no complaints, but if someone wants to get officious on me, I have no recourse.

However, a group of the neighbors (Chinese Immigrants, many of whom survived the Cultural Revolution) appropriated a larger flat space on the other side of the drainage ditch, put up a fence and managed to grow vegetables until well after Christmas. This garden was banned and the fence removed, although I supported the Gardeners, since they were often out there working and keeping an eye out on all our back doors, noticing all the toddlers and just generally being good neighbors.

In another instance, an airline encroached on one of our neighborhood parks by dropping a piece of a jet on it.........

[defendandprotect]

7. If it were "homeless" people . . . they'd be attacked immediately ---!!!

[Trillo]

8. It sure seems so.

Some of the surrounding 'property owners' would call and write letters, even to the newspaper folks.

Yet, don't they homeless folks have JUST AS MUCH right to that PUBLIC land as the surrounding owners? No, because homeless don't pay taxes? Yes, because the homeless have a first amendment right to show their class status?

Money talks, constitution walks? That's my guess. Seems an old story of transgressions and usurpations....

[bean fidhleir]

10. The "gentry" have always done this. This is how the Enclosure Acts started, that starved and made

outlaws of millions of peaceful villagers.

These people's sense of personal privilege and entitlement is so overweening that they can't imagine how their taking could be a problem, much less a crime. They're the "opportunist psychopaths": they're perfectly capable of obeying the rules, and do so except when they think they can get away with transgressing. Like other kinds of stupid people, they're nearly all rightwingers.

[Blue_Tires]

11. a sort-of similar case in my hometown

a little different, though, because the laws regarding the dunes are murky and lax in enforcement...




Norfolk officials say dune projects are often illegal


From a public access ramp at 13th Bay Street in Ocean View, evidence of people enjoying the beach abounds.

There are tables and chairs, boats, observation decks, fire pits, flag poles, tiki torches, picnic tables, fountains and even swing sets.

Problem is, most of these items sit on public land or on fragile sand dunes, harming them, city officials said.

Residents need the city's permission to build on the dunes, which Norfolk spends about $2 million per year replenishing. The dunes protect beachfront property from storm damage.

But few residents have asked for that permission, said Lee Rosenberg, who manages the city's environmental services bureau. Rosenberg told Mayor Paul Fraim's Ocean View Task Force recently that a survey of the beaches found nearly 400 residents have illegally intruded into the dunes. He said the problem in Ocean View has never been worse.

"Essentially what you have is people homesteading public land," Rosenberg said. "In some areas, it's out of control."



http://hamptonroads.com/node/469160