In a city of builders, no growth?

With its yacht clubs, beachfront estates, exotic-car dealerships and five-star hotels, Newport Beach is hardly typical of the overall United States and is a tad unusual even in wealthy Orange County. Yet the latest property-rights battle over a no-growth measure on the November ballot known as Measure X is in its own way reflective of what is going on most everywhere, from other parts of suburban Orange County to urban Portland, Ore., to rural Montana.

Supporters of these myriad anti-property-rights proposals i.e., minimum lot sizes, growth controls, urban growth boundaries, conservation easements, habitat preservation, right-to-vote initiatives gussy up the proposals in good-government language.

They talk about protecting home values and quality of life, about using the democratic process and holding officials accountable, but the proposals are always about the rankest form of self-interest using government to limit others' property rights as a way to "protect" one's perceived quality of life. Read More