I used to be a pretty staunch property rights guy, meaning that a person should be able to do whatever they want with their property. My thoughts have shifted over the past few years, mostly due to listening to public hearings at the county level.

In those hearings, property owners will argue and debate over whether someone should be allowed to do a particular thing with their property. Usually it involves a rezoning for some kind of development, or they want approval to build some kind of structure that neighbors may object to for some reason or another, or maybe there is some restriction being considered on the kind of lighting a business may have, etc.

One key question came to mind as I weighed the various arguments:

Why do you want to do that with your property in that location?

As I followed that thought, I wondered why they don’t do whatever it is they want to do in some remote location like the middle of Montana where no one will even see it, let alone be bothered by it.

Presumably, they want to do whatever it is in that exact location because there is something desirable about where they live. A common sentiment is that the “love the area” or “love the community.”

Well, they obviously aren’t the only ones who feel that way. And a community is created by the members of that community. It is, literally, a community effort to create the environment that each of them have chosen to live in. As such, it makes sense that the members of that community can create guidelines and impose rules to help maintain this environment that they have built.

As my libertarian friends like to say, “It’s not my responsibility to maintain your property value.”

That may be true, but it is also incumbent upon you to not do anything that will rob me of value. And if members of the community collectively agree on standards to maintain the look and feel of this thing that they have made together, it is reasonable that they can enforce those standards on individuals who would upend their creation.

Of course, this does not mean that fundamental rights of ownership or basic natural rights can be infringed upon, but I don’t see the freedom to do whatever you want to your property without regard to your neighbors as on that list. If doing whatever you want with your property is that important to you, then why not go where a community of people will not be affected by your actions?