List of "Common Sense" Legal/Regulatory Changes to Improve Public Land Access

[VikingsGuy]

Eminent domain of private property for the purpose of public recreation is a pipe dream.

It’s a reality today - lots of good bike trail examples. The constitutional question is “public use”, of which recreation is one. The bigger constraint is state legislation that sets boundaries on state/local use of eminent domain, but that doesn’t limit the fed. Last fed rule I saw was Bush Pres Order requiring “public use” to combat some concerns about passing land from one private owner to a second (but govt preferred) owner via eminent domain.

 

[hossblur]

Not a lawyer. But in Utah the trend is for private landowners to build homes in "the back 40", off of class d roads(county roads not maintained), then aggressively petition the county to "abandon" the road(give it to the landowner.

It is successful, too often.

One thought I have.

Lots of BLM/FS land in Utah is landlocked by ranches/farms that lay between highways and paved roads. Many of those ranches have grazing permits. Seems like trading grazing fees for access would be easy. Seems also like many of these farms there could be trades made on tax side.

Having said that. There are many new "ranches" that are specifically targeting land to buy that will landlock public, seen that in s Utah recently. On those ranches I have no problem with eminent domain.