Category Archives: State

Help Mike Lee Stop the AFFH Act!

H/T to John Anthony from Sustainable Freedom Lab

Senator Mike Lee has proposed an amendment that is likely to come up for a vote this week in the Senate.

This would remove the funding for HUD’s new rule, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

Under AFFH, HUD has expanded Congress’ intent in the Fair Housing Act to enable the agency to control local zoning, override local public officials’ authority, and reverse voters’ decisions.

Please tell your Senators to support Senator Lee’s amendment and stop funding for HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

Senator Kelly Ayotte
http://ayotte.senate.gov/
Sen. Kelly Ayotte
(202) 224-3324

Senator Jeanne Shaheen
http://shaheen.senate.gov/
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
(202) 224-2841

What to do next.

Senator Lee’s amendment is a large step toward stopping HUD’s intrusion into local rule. But it will not completely stop the agency’s egregious overreach.

The lawsuits that we now see that are forcing communities like Westchester County New York, Marin County California, and Baltimore County Maryland to bend their zoning rules to meet the federal government’s plans, were initiated before the AFFH rule became law.

HUD has always had severe requirements attached to their funding programs such as the Community Development Block Grant. However, enforcement of the strings was minimal and most communities were never aware of their implications.

Since the lawsuit against Westchester County, that has changed. Now enforces these requirements by instigating local grassroots groups and legal advocates to sue communities that accept the HUD Grant money and fail to affirmatively further fair housing.

In other words, your local community civic group members and affordable housing developers become the “stick” that enforces HUD’s demands.

In addition to failure to affirmatively further fair housing, there are other charges such as “disparate impact,” that enable HUD to hold local communities accountable.

From Senator Mike Lee
http://netrightdaily.com/2016/05/sen-mike-lee-affh-betrayal-fair-housing-act/

Supporters Pushing Senate on Commuter Rail, After House Said NO

Despite the fact that the NH House put the kibosh on the $4M study for commuter rail, some in the Senate are still trying to push it.

Remember this?
http://www.granitestatefutures.org/news/2015/03/22/bedford-heading-for-an-agenda-21-ghost-city/

“CONCORD — Supporters of commuter rail are pushing for the Senate Transportation Committee to tap $4 million in federal funding to help fund the next phase of commuter rail after the full House rejected the spending.

The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce submitted a letter signed by 18 business leaders, including from Citizens Bank, SilverTech and the McLane law firm, urging the Senate to back further work.”

Commuter rail supporters seek funds for planning from Senate committee

Contact your NH Senators and tell them NO!

John Kerry Must Not Sign Paris Global Warming Treaty

Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to New York to deposit ratification documents for the Paris Global Warming Treaty – even though it has not been ratified!

And even though this agreement will be signed at the United Nations, and even though this document binds nations into enacting new “green” regulations, Obama claims that this deal is not a treaty!

Why? So he can circumvent Congress and implement it via EPA regulations. And liberals will find judges to force future administrations to abide by it too – if we don’t act now.

That’s why I hope you will Tell Congress there should be NO FUNDING for Obama’s Global Warming Treaty!

We cannot allow Obama to lawlessly circumvent Congress again in order to ram through the environmentalists’ extreme agenda.

The Paris Treaty will force crippling new regulations on our economy, redistribute American tax dollars to third world dictators, and establish a wasteful green slush fund to enrich global warming bureaucrats.

Obama may claim it’s not a treaty, but you and I can see right through this deceit. That’s why we must Tell Congress to STOP ANY FUNDING for Obama’s Global Warming Treaty.

Sign the petition here:
http://action.americancommitment.org/19165/do-not-fund-obamas-green-climate-fund/

NH Under Attack

NH is apparently under attack by stealth legislation, regional commissions both state and federal, and what look to be private foundations and NGOs, working to see the federal ‘sustainablity’ agenda enforced. [Agenda21/Agenda2030]

These bills/entities seek to influence and change planning and land use Laws:

Commission to Develop a Land Conservation Plan [RSA 162-C:12]

Rural Affairs Commission

Northern Borders Regional Commission [federal]

Regional Conservation trusts [not a complete list]

Moose Mountain Regional Greenways
Green Mountain Conservation

SB 376 – Senate Wildlife Corridor Bill

All are working in conjunction with federal funds and support activities of private trusts.

America’s Biggest Threat: UN Agenda 2030

UN Agenda 2030 is the excuse for world government. It is the abrogation of our individual human rights, and the single most dangerous threat facing Americans today. Its principles and goals are being adopted by our federal government, and through illegal agencies such as the IRS, BLM, HUD, EPA, are finding their way into our local laws.

Executive Board strengthens UNESCO to lead 2030 Agenda

The Executive Board of UNESCO Friday ended its 199th session with the adoption of decisions concerning UNESCO’s programmes and management. The session was led by Executive Board Chairperson, Ambassador Michael Worbs, Permanent Delegate of Germany to UNESCO.

Accelerating the reform of the Organization was a key result of deliberations at the Executive Board ‘ to sharpen UNESCO’s delivery to Member States in reaching the new goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as to discuss the implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Read more…

Certified Local Government Grants

THE FRAMEWORK OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(Certified Local Government Grants)

By Ed Comeau
GovernmentOversite.com

In a recent Wakefield NH Selectmen’s meeting, the Heritage Commission chair requested the acceptance of a grant through the National Park Service. The Federal National Park Service offers grants to, Certified Local Governments that financially assist towns in historic asset inventory. https://www.nps.gov/clg/

A Certified Local Government grant allows funds to support the Federal Government agreements made to the incorporate sustainable development within the United States. It is under the guise of historic preservation. The process is a gathering of historic assets. This asset inventory will be used to control development. Similar methods are used throughout planning and land use regulations. Presently it is not regulatory, but it is a framework for future regulation of land use. The other good example of this is the State development plan, the Town or City Master Plan or Regional Master Plan. All have the same Federal involvement through some sort of grant funding to incorporate Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development is the control of Land, Air, Water, Energy through the linkages of the economy and social mechanisms.

This is being presented the same way in many towns throughout the United States. The initial reason for the grant is presented, but the unintended consequences or agenda is left out.

Listen to how this grant is presented to the selectmen.

Below is an excerpt taken from the NPS website:

Community certification opens doors to funding, technical assistance, and other preservation successes.

Funding: States receive annual appropriations from the Federal Historic Preservation Fund. States are required to give at least 10% of their funding to CLGs as sub grants. These grants can fund a wide variety of projects including: surveys, National Register nominations, rehabilitation work, design guidelines, educational programs, training, structural assessments, and feasibility studies, to name a few.

Technical Assistance: As a CLG, communities have direct access to SHPO staff for assistance with their commission, building assessments, surveys and nominations, and general preservation assistance. State staff and NPS offer regular training for CLGs as well, an added benefit of the partnership. Each SHPO has a designated CLG Coordinator.

Sustainability:
Historic preservation has proven economic, environmental, and social benefits. Studies show that historic districts maintain higher property values, less population decline, more walkability and greater sense of community.

Being a CLG demonstrates your community’s commitment to saving what is important from the past for future generations. As a certified community it becomes easy to demonstrate a readiness to take on successful preservation projects, making your community able to compete for new opportunities!

Why is this a concern?

This is incremental usurpation of our property rights.

No comprehensive review of federal grants. The unelected commissions are submitting applications for this funding without telling the selectmen that this is in support of international Sustainable Development planning. These grants are contracts. The very nature of a contract is the presentment of the agreement, without this the contract is void.

How?

Federal grant funds.

This inventory asset will be a required document of review for the local land use board. Coupled with the adopted Form Based Codes and international building codes everything that is built will be under tight control.

What is the New Urban Agenda?

These articles from the CitiScope website (a website funded by the MacArthur, Rockefeller, Ford, and Kresge foundations) explains further what UN Habitat III hopes to accomplish, and how the policies put forth therein will affect your country, state, and city or town.

Habitat 3

The New Urban Agenda will be the outcome document agreed upon at the Habitat III cities conference in October 2016. In turn, it will guide the efforts around urbanization of a wide range of actors — nation states, city and regional leaders, international development funders, United Nations programmes and civil society — for the next 20 years. Inevitably, this agenda will also lay the groundwork for policies and approaches that will extend, and impact, far into the future.

When one reads further, it is easy to see how these UN goals and subsequent decrees, although supposedly not binding on any one nation, can help set the agenda for many rules being made today, and could be the impetus for major changes to constitutions — changes that may guarantee housing, and which, via federal government interference, reach down into the cities and towns of the USA.

The United Nations’ current thinking on global urbanization is summed up in the Habitat Agenda: Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements, the outcome document agreed upon in 1996 at the Habitat II conference. It called for adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world.

Since then, over 100 countries have adopted constitutional rights to adequate housing, a major success of the Habitat Agenda. At the same time, however, international aid organizations and bilateral development agencies have steadily reduced their investments in cities and slashed their urban programmes. These are trends that have challenged the full implementation of the Habitat Agenda.

The bottom line is, the climate change hoax was created by oil magnate (now deceased) Maurice Strong to create a unifying factor under which people could be convinced for the need of world government. The article praises the emergence of “mega-regions” as opposed to traditional political subdivisions such as towns and cities, and states, “The New Urban Agenda will highlight three operational enablers, collectively being referred to by the UN-Habitat leadership as the “three-legged” approach: local fiscal systems, urban planning, and basic services and infrastructure.”

UN policies are now being adopted federally under the guise of “sustainability”, the justification for government interference in how humans live… the preferred model being the promotion of “walkable cities”, with allowance for little or no further development of rural lands. True, while it is “soft law”, it is a “trickle-down” sort of policy that comes with federal money, but embedded nevertheless into the lexicon of most local planning boards. The term is “urbanization” and many rural towns are resisting it because it is not wanted, not needed, and threatens to become a tax burden to residents as well as attract undesirables to areas that currently enjoy little crime.

Every town in NH has a “master plan” which contain examples of urbanization, such as Bedford’s “overlay district”. Certainly Bedford’s voters had no idea the origins of the philosophy of urbanism before they voted for the overlay district.

Click for full article…

Related articles on the web of UN bureaucracy, universities, and foundations which drive the urbanism agenda:

What is Habitat III

Habitat III Major Players

Calendar: Toward Habitat III

Committee Hearing on SB 324

Testimony was heard on NH’s SB 324 on April 12, 2016 and captured on video by Ed Comeau of GovernmentOversite.com

SENATE BILL 324 AN ACT eliminating the land use board and requiring approval of federal land acquisitions by the governor and executive council.

SPONSORS: Sen. Avard, Dist 12; Sen. Sanborn, Dist 9; Rep. McConnell, Ches. 12; Rep. Burt,
Hills. 39; Rep. Hoell, Merr. 23; Rep. Eastman, Hills. 28

COMMITTEE: Executive Departments And Administration

AMENDED ANALYSIS
This bill eliminates the land use board, requires approval of federal land acquisitions by the governor and executive council, and requires the commissioner of the department of resources and economic development to issue a certificate of compliance with the approval process before land may be sold or transferred to the federal government.

If the above video does not appear on your device, use the direct link:
https://youtu.be/KhCkLWfUREA

Town Officials May Be in Denial, But…

Habitat 3

Town officials may be in denial about where planners, regional or otherwise, are getting their ideas for your town or city. But the stark reality is, the agenda is being driven by global non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations, which are pushing to urbanize everywhere. The idea is to get you out of your cars and away from rural areas, and into pre-designated, UN-approved “human settlements” in preparation for the re-wilding of America, and indeed the world.

Here is their latest policy decree from “Habitat 3“.

“The preparatory process of Habitat III requires to mobilize all expertise on sustainable urban development which represents various constituent groups and stakeholders, and whose selection is guided by geographical and gender balance, as well as qualitative criteria in terms of contribution to the Habitat III preparatory process.”

Who are these people setting these policies?

“Each Policy Unit is composed by 20 experts, coming from different geographic areas and constituencies.They have been appointed by the Secretary General of the Conference, in close consultation with the Bureau of the Preparatory Committee for Habitat III, after receiving nominations from Member States and stakeholders.

According to their website, the main objectives of the Policy Unit are:

– To bring together high-level expertise to explore state-of-the-art research and analysis on specific themes;
– To identify good practices and lessons learned; and
– To develop policy recommendations on particular issues regarding sustainable urban
development.”

Specifically we find an American from New Jersey on one list: “National Urban Policies“.

Thomas Dallessio
President, CEO and Publisher of NextCity
He holds Master Degree in City Regional Planning from Rutgers University. He’s also the executive Director, NextCity; Director at Center for Resilient Design; Board member at Consortium for sustainable Urbanization and the Governor’s Appointee to New Jersey state Planning Commission.

Other policy-makers include former officials for the globalists at the World Bank, the (de)famed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), World Heritage Convention, European Union, Rockefeller Foundation, UNESCO, “Fulbrighters”, International Society of Regional Planners, and other globalist, one world government-promoting groups.

Have you ever seen so much babble from big government trying to manage every minutiae of your lives?

Most people have no idea that these “sustainable” policies have been adopted at the national level and are now being imposed on our towns and cities with the aid of HUD, EPA, DOT, and grant money, and with the help of presidential directives such as Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act, zoning laws and planning rules are being changed accordingly.

You can read about the US’s full support of the agenda in this paper: United States Comments on UN Planning Agenda. Note that it defers to human rights as described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (UDHR), the UN’s very own “constitution”, which is at odds with our US Constitution.

It’s all part of a larger agenda for the world, all set by the high pooh-bahs of some out-of-control socialist club called the UN, which is NOT a legitimate “government” to any country, and which therefore, SHOULD have NO say whatsoever in anything that guides our Sovereign Republic of the United States.

The sooner our city and town planners face the reality of the origins of the ideas contained in these plans offered by the RPCs, the better off the citizens will be.

Silvio Conte Public Info Session May 3, 2016

On Tuesday, May 3, 2016 there will be a public information session concerning the draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge at the Kilton Library Community Room, 80 Main Street West Lebanon, New Hampshire.

This is a very important meeting where you can voice your concerns via a Q and A over the land that is being taken by the federal government.

Please download the PDF flyer Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.