Had it been any other Sunday, Craig Raygor — a staunch Broncos fan — would have watched the Super Bowl, his eyes glued to the television from kick off to final play. That was what he had planned to do. But instead of sitting home in his armchair, cheering for the Broncos in their big game against the Atlanta Falcons, he and his wife “RO” — short for Rojean — and their three sons, ages 6, 10, and 17, began a two-day march along Highway 83, from Colorado Springs north to Denver, the state capital, a distance of 80 miles.
Yesterday was Michelle and Bill Moore’s wedding anniversary. But they
chose not to spend it at home or in a restaurant. They and their three
sons, ages 5, 10, and 14, — and Michelle Moore’s mother — were with
the Raygor family walking north.
“My husband (Bill) and I don’t look on this as giving up anything,” says
Michell Moore, one of the organizers of the march. “What we have to gain
is a lot more.”
The Raygors and Moores were not alone. A total of 19 adults — plus children and teenagers — gave up part of their Sunday, and perhaps Monday and Tuesday as well. They carried homemade picket signs and an American flag — “a symbol of the principles of liberty our country was founded on,” is how a press release put it.
What cause could be so urgent that a small group of Coloradans would
give up the comforts of home and amusements of the weekend to brave the
cold of a Rocky Mountains winter?
In a word: Freedom.
“We’re all Broncos fans,” Raygor told WorldNetDaily, “But we’re even
bigger fans of freedom. So we’re marching to the state capital, rain or
shine, snow or blow.”
The march is intended to draw public attention to two bills recently
introduced in the state Senate. This legislation, though tailored for
Colorado, could inspire similar legislation in other states. One would
give residents in unincorporated areas of a county the right to vote on
land use regulations which will affect them. A second bill would grant
county voters initiative and referendum powers with respect to
countywide issues.
The group sponsoring the march — as well as the proposed legislation
— is a property rights organization Savvy People Against Zoning. It
was recently formed by Moore, Raygor and a third activist Greg Tyner, to
fight efforts by three of the five county commissioners to impose zoning
on the eastern part of El Paso County — against the wishes and
determination of the local commissioner, Betty Beedy, who represents
the 5,200 residents of the area.
About 60 percent of El Paso County is already zoned, but the rural
eastern half of the county, which covers about 900 square miles, is not.
And most of the people living there like it that way. It is an area of
grassland, arroyos, and prairie — which has been divided into number of
40 acre parcels and small ranches. There, people like Craig and Ro
Raygor — who are not well-to-do — are able to own a piece of land and
put down roots. It’s not easy to do that in the rest of the county where
land prices and property taxes have gone up.
The folks living in eastern El Paso County fear the proposed zoning
ordinance would impose a new layer of government, which would mandate
excessive land use controls and subsequent costs.
“We don’t want more want more red tape,” Raygor explained. “We don’t
want more government intervention, and we don’t want to have to beg or
buy permission from the planning department or county commission to do
what we want on our land.”
Commissioner Betty Beedy agrees. She was elected in 1996 on a no-zoning
platform and has held firm to it. Due to illness Beedy could not be
reached for comment, but in November she told the Colorado Springs
Gazette, “Zoning has been brought up every 10 years or so — it’s not
something that hasn’t been discussed and rejected. If there was careful
consideration this time, the same conclusion would be reached. We don’t
need it.”
Beedy is the only one of the five commissioners who actually lives in
the district she represents. The other four live in the city of Colorado
Springs.
It wasn’t Beedy who instigated the zoning proposal. It was County
Commission Chairman Chuck Brown who represents a completely different
district. Brown and other supporters of zoning say it’s necessary
because many of the people out in the eastern area live in mobile homes,
have no sanitary facilities and tend to throw trash around.
But according to Raygor, “There are laws on the books which if they were
enforced would take care of the problems they say exist,” he says. “Like
rubbish, for instance. There are rubbish ordinances on the books that
they don’t enforce.”
Raygor and his friends beat back a zoning attempt in 1994. “There was a
mass outpouring of opposition at the commission meetings, and the effort
went down,” he recalled.
“This time, three of the commissioners refuse to listen to us,” said
Raygor. “They’ve ignored the 1,000 signatures we collected on a
petition, and they ignore the people when they come to the meetings.”
At one meeting over 500 zoning opponents showed up, and only 14
supporters.
“We can’t find more than 14 people in the whole area that want zoning,”
Raygor remarked. “So because we are not getting proper representation
from the commissioners, we’ve gotten legislation introduced in the state
senate.”
The first bill, Senate Bill 91, by Sen. Mark Hillman — whose district
includes a part of the county — would allow residents of an area
affected by a proposed zoning or land use regulation to petition that
the proposal be submitted to the voters of the area. The second, Senate
Bill 76, by Sen. Doug Lambourn, grants initiative and referendum powers
with respect to countywide issues. This means that on countywide issues,
people would could challenge an ordinance (or propose a new one) by
petitioning to have it put on the ballot for a vote of the people.
The Colorado Springs Gazette has come out strongly for S 91. As remarked
in a recent editorial:”
“Why shouldn’t Coloradans have the same right to petition their county
governments for change, or to oppose unwarranted change, as they do with
state and city governments? … Ideally, there shouldn’t have to be a
vote. The zoning debate is ultimately about individual property rights,
pure and simple. Imposing zoning in this case would flout those rights.
Americans shouldn’t have to vote themselves back their rights; they’re
inalienable. And county commissioners should have no power to take them
away.”
S 91 will be heard by the Local Government Committee at 2:00 p.m.,
tomorrow. The marchers plan to be there in plenty of time for the
hearing.
Raygor told WorldNetDaily minutes before the march began that he did not
know how many would complete it or if they would be joined by others
along the way. They have a mobile home for staying in, and support
vehicles to collect road weary walkers and give them a ride.
“We’ll have people walking all the way,” he said, “But since we have to
cover 35 miles a day, I figure we’re looking at 13 or 14 hour stretches
on Sunday and Monday.
“If people see us,” he added, “I hope they’ll wave to us and give us a
thumbs up.”
Class action scams
John Stossel