Opposition by President Clinton and Chief Justice William Rehnquist notwithstanding, a bill that would give real estate developers significant new clout with local zoning boards is rolling through Congress.
The bill would eliminate many of the administrative and judicial hurdles a developer must clear before going into a federal court to contest state and local zoning, environmental, and other land-use decisions.
It is just one item on a congressional agenda that environmental groups say has caught them by surprise.
“Things are heating up faster than we thought they would,” said Gregory Wetstone, a lobbyist for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Work is proceeding on regulatory reform measures, bills aimed at changing the Endangered Species Act, reauthorization of the federal Superfund law and plans to change the way timber is sold on federally owned land.
The developer bill is at the front of the pack.
It would allow builders to go directly into federal court with “takings” suits when development plans are turned down by local authorities because of zoning, environmental or other restrictions.
In takings suits, property owners argue that a government action amounts to a seizure of the value of their property for which they must be compensated. Such suits must be heard in state courts before federal courts will take appeals. The process can consume as much as 10 years, according to lobbyists for a home builders organization.
The White House has warned that Clinton will veto the bill, and Rehnquist has complained that it would further clog an overbooked federal court calendar. Lobbyists for the National Association of Home Builders, which supports the bill, denied that the proposal “would be used as a club or bludgeon over local decision makers.”
Other issues in what Wetstone calls a “gathering storm” of environmental fights include:
– National forest management. In a close vote Friday, the House killed a bill that would have set up “recovery zones,” or wilderness areas of national forests where loggers could work without regard to environmental restrictions.
– Regulatory reform. The Regulatory Improvement Bill of 1998, sponsored by Sens. Fred Thompson(R-Tenn.) and Carl Levin(D-Mich.) would require government agencies to consider alternative approaches to new regulations and assess the costs they would force businesses to incur.
– Superfund reauthorization. After three years of hearings and negotiations, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a bill Thursday to rewrite the laws governing disposal of hazardous waste at Superfund sites. Sen. Max Baucus(D-Mont.) said the bill would lower cleanup standards at Superfund sites and cause settled lawsuits to be reopened.
– The Endangered Species Act. A 50,000-word rewriting of the federal law to protect endangered and threatened plants and animals was approved by the Senate last fall with tentative support from the Clinton administration. It would force the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to speed up decisions on whether to formally declare a species threatened or endangered and would emphasize recovery efforts.
