Landowners’ Rights Stop Where Neighbors’ Rights Start
May 12, 2005
Highland County Recorder Letters to the Editor
My name is Ben Blakemore. I live in Little Valley at Bolar. My property is about one-half mile across the Highland County line and into Bath County. Some of you know me as a real estate agent.
These are the reasons why I have not written or been involved in the windmill turbine issue in Highland. I am not a resident and do not pay taxes in Highland. Some people will say I am probably just looking out for the real estate business and to some extent they would be right. Some would probably also tell me to mind my own business. But something has occurred, and I thought the citizens of Highland County ought to know about it.
Many of you know that for the past three years I have had a spot at the high school, during the Maple Festival, to show and tell people about the real estate available in Highland and Bath. In the course of the two weekends I talk to hundreds of people from all over the eastern United States. They freely talk to me about their dreams and ambitions about Highland County. How much they love the mountains, the streams, the views, the forests, the people. How much they want to own land and property here in the county for retirement, vacations, hunting and for a place to get away. They want to escape the noise pollution, the light pollution, the traffic pollution and have a place to go to enjoy the beauty and serenity of the mountains with their families.
This year that attitude changed dramatically! The unanimous comment this year is “we are not going to do anything in Highland County until we see what happens with the wind turbines.” Many commented “this may be the last year we come to the festival too if we have to look at those obscene wind turbines on top of all the mountains.” If there is any hard evidence to support the devaluation of your property if the wind turbines are allowed, there you are, folks.
In real estate law and terminology, there are certain things that are guaranteed to a fee simple property owner. The term for this is the “Bundle of Rights.” One of these rights is that you have right “of quiet enjoyment.” Others are, the right to possess, control, encumber, and dispose. The term“encumber” means to place an interest on the land to someone else. Only the owner has the legal right to encumber the land. (other than eminent domain and police powers). The term “encroachment” is also another form on encumbrance. An encroachment can best be described as an unauthorized physical intrusion or an unauthorized trespass. Loud noises, bright lights, violation of the owner’s air space, are some examples. These encumbrances and encroachments are illegal if the owner does not authorize it. The land owner can take legal action to prevent these things from happening.
My discussions with a few local people frequently provoke the statement “a person should have the right to do whatever they want with their own land.” Most everybody would agree with that opinion. However, that right stops when a person, while exercising that right, encumbers or encroaches another’s “bundle of rights.” Examples: There is a strong stream on my property, but I cannot create a dam for a pond and cut the water off from my downstream neighbors. The first amendment “Right to Freedom of Speech,” but you cannot slander or libel another person. The second amendment “Right to Keep and Bear Arms,” shall not be infringed. That right stops when you use a gun for illegal purposes.
What I have found out and heard from our visitors at the festival, and in many cases, my clients and customers, fully supports the fact that these wind turbines will encumber and encroach on all of the land owners in Highland County. That is wrong and it is illegal. What these people want very much, and is very, very important to them, is that they want a “good view.” So let’s coin a new phrase “view pollution.” I ask that each of you ride south down the Jackson River Valley, and pull over at the stockyard and just look at the view. Jack Mountain on your left and Back Creek Mountain on your right. It is too glorious to describe. Especially take note of that big stand of evergreens on Sounding Knob, and picture wind turbines sticking up in the middle of it. Those trees are probably around 150 feet high. The wind turbine would be over 400 feet high, with a blade span like a 747 airplane. They will dwarf the trees. These turbines are hideous monsters. Keep going and take Route 84 west. Cross the divide and start down Mill Creek Valley. Back Creek Mountain on the left and Little Mountain on your right. Truly breathtaking!
Your county supervisors, only three people, (three people) are considering destroying these great images forever. Imagine long lines of hundreds of these turbines on the tops of those mountains. They are considering encroaching and encumbering on all of the land owners who own land in these areas and taking away your right to “quiet enjoyment.” For what? Why? Some nebulous and unconfirmed tax revenue?
It is the same question Mr. Billingsley asked the supervisors last week. Perhaps the alleged tax revenue does not exist. Maybe there is another motive having nothing to do with tax revenue. The so called tax revenue may only be the “Judas goat.” The cover for something else? A question citizens of Highland should ask. Who owns mountain top land? What families stand to profit by rental contracts for these monstrosities? Perhaps that is why the supervisors cannot show any potential tax revenue. There is none.
The real goal is to secure those lucrative profits from renting the high ground to the wind farm developers. If anyone who is in a position to control the outcome of this issue, and they or their families stand to profit from this decision, they should step down due to “conflict of interest.” Do not believe they will be restricted to only Allegheny Mountain. Once the door is open there will be no stopping them. It will be the same on all of our mountains. Jack, Monterey, Lance, Allegheny and the Bullpasture. These wonderful creations destroyed forever by so much junk. Why and how do these three individuals think they have the right to use Highland County for toilet paper?
There is only one way to resolve this issue correctly. That is a county referendum by which all of its tax-paying citizens, resident and non-resident, make the decision on this monumental issue. The three supervisors of Highland County know, without a doubt, that the majority of citizens and taxpayers of Highland County do not want these wind turbines under any circumstances. But they continue to move forward to where they have now voted themselves, to empower themselves, to make the decision to bring these horrific objects into this grand and beautiful place and turn it into a landfill for junk. It makes me wonder if Highland government covenants, and its by-laws, provide for a recall or impeachment process for supervisors by which the majority of its citizens can remove them for violation of trust? Maybe call for a special election. Check with an attorney.
All of you non-resident owners of land in Highland, is it your intentions to sit back and wait and see? Many of you have been my clients and are now my friends. I know it is hard and inconvenient for many of you to make the trip to Highland. But you have rights too. You have a serious investment in Highland County. You are a real part of the tax base in Highland. Get involved. Be at the meetings, write to everyone, get in touch with the appropriate members of the state legislature. Establish yourself as residents if necessary. Join and support the local group who are working to protect your rights. Get a lawyer! Get an injunction! Raise hell! All residents and non-residents, you might even consider contacting the Virginia General Attorneys in Richmond, and ask for an investigation into this entire issue. Because, in my opinion, this entire sequence of events has a distinct odor of violation of trust, and abuse of power and authority. Stop this atrocity.
Ben Blakemore Little Valley, VA.
*This article may be subject to Fair Use Notice
