Agenda 21 Comes to Greenville SC … (and Spartanburg!)
Henry Lamb, with an article posted at EnterStateRight.com has a brief article on the intrusion of the UN backed Agenda 21 policy (sustainable development, Ten at the Top, etc.) into Greenville County.
Few of the folks know that back during the 1970s, South Carolina was one of a handful of states that yielded to the Progressive push to require comprehensive land use planning. Senators “Scoop” Jackson and Morris Udall tried unsuccessfully to get Congress to adopt a National Comprehensive Planning Act. The same national initiative persuaded Oregon, Florida, and South Carolina to adopt statewide legislation. South Carolina’s law requires counties to develop a comprehensive land use plan, and to update it every ten years. Even fewer folks know that this comprehensive planning initiative that swept across the country during the 1970s was caused by the United Nations, and promoted by an assortment of U.N.-accredited non-government organizations. The initiative culminated in the U.N. Conference on Human Settlements held in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1976.
Most communities that have developed similar comprehensive land use plans in recent years make their plan legally binding. It is the mechanism through which sustainable development is enforced in many communities. The Greenville plan makes a point of assuring residents that the plan is not legally-binding. It is offered as a guideline for future land use, but it is not legally binding.
It doesn’t have to be. Greenville County has a legally-binding Official Zoning Map, and has already adopted most of the available regulatory codes offered by the International Codes Council.
Near the bottom of the article, Henry writes:
What’s dangerous about sustainable development and Agenda 21 is not that it comes from the U.N., but that it promotes government control over the decisions of free individuals.
Now let me turn your attention to a recent article in the Spartanburg Journal by Dick Hughes about the Ten at the Top group who has traveled around putting on seminars. Some of us attended one of these seminars in Spartanburg a few months ago. In that article we read this:
“…the passionate culture of personal freedom in land use has resulted in sporadic land-use policies that produces a development strategy that includes unattractive development with a disjointed land use pattern often referred to as sprawl. If we are to create an Upstate that is visually attractive and provides sustainable land uses, we must strike a balance between the rights of the individual land owners and the overall needs of the community.вЂќ
I’m hoping this is all you need to hear to join me in keeping a careful watch for further intrusions and GRABBING of your personal liberties by these organizations and this agenda. I’ll be bringing more info on this as different events take place and ask you to attend. We’ll watch to see how Spartanburg County Council addresses these sustainability issues, pushed by the progressive folks who see no reason to stop a UN promoted program from trampling your property rights.