[statecom-discuss] URGENT! STOP THE ROLLBACK OF TIDELAND PROTECTIONS!

[Eli Beckerman]

[Note:   In January the Green-Rainbow Party adopted a statement opposing
Governor Patrick's tidelands bill.  A number of GRP activists are in the
thick of this battle.  We now have TWO DAYS to stop the latest attempt
to pass this bill. See the alert below.  Thanks! - John Andrews]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jill Stein - MCHC <info at masschc.org>
Date: Jul 24, 2007 8:36 PM
Subject: URGENT! STOP THE ROLLBACK OF TIDELAND PROTECTIONS!

[image: people]
*URGENT! STOP THE ROLLBACK OF TIDELAND PROTECTIONS!*

CALL or e-mail your Legislators TODAY.

Dear friend of the environment and sustainable, just communities,

A *CRITICAL DECISION* will be made in the Massachusetts Legislature sometime
in the next three days. Real estate interests - assisted by the Patrick
Administration - are pressuring the Legislature to *roll back public rights
on the state's tidelands*. If the real estate lobby succeeds, the result
will be

   - an end to current Chapter 91 (Public Waterfront Act) provisions for
   *community input* in guiding development on filled tidelands;
   - clearing the way for NorthPoint developers in Cambridge *to take 13
   acres of Commonwealth tidelands* for their project - a giveaway of
   public land occurring without public review;
   - an ominous setback for the principle of *home rule*, as a
   lobbyist-written bill affecting Cambridge and Somerville is rammed through
   over the objections of local legislators;
   - a chilling demonstration that real estate interests have the power
   to write our laws- and even to *invalidate our laws
retroactively*when citizens ask that they be enforced;
   - a missed opportunity to address the serious problems of *groundwater
   depletion* on filled tidelands.

PLEASE SPEAK UP for the environment and for community rights. Win or lose,
we must put up the best fight possible because the precedents being set here
will set the stage for other developer power-grabs that are already moving
forward on Beacon Hill.

*PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS TODAY & URGE THEM TO:*

1) *OPPOSE H3757 AND ANY SIMILAR BILL* that reduces environmental protection
and public rights on tidelands.

2) *STOP THE SECRECY AND RESPECT OUR DEMOCRACY*. Let the public see the text
of the bill and give them an opportunity to contact their legislators before
their rights are taken away. ( Currently the exact text is SECRET and it
appears that plans are to rush it through committee in a single day, without
hearings.)

3) *RESPECT HOME RULE PRINCIPLES and THE RIGHT OF CITIZENS TO BE PROTECTED
BY LAWS ON THE BOOKS*. Don't allow real estate lobbyists to retroactively
rewrite laws to take away citizen rights and appropriate public lands.

To get your legislator's email and telephone number, go to
http://masschc.org/write.html

-------------------

*THE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE*
It is especially important to contact the following legislators on the Joint
Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture:

Brewer of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin
Brownsberger of Belmont
Creedon of Second Plymouth and Bristol
Evangelidis of Holden
Gifford of Wareham
Gobi of Spencer
Guyer of Dalton
Kocot of Northampton - Vice-Chair
Moran of Boston
O'Leary of Cape and Islands
Pacheco of First Plymouth and Bristol - Vice-Chair
Peake of Provincetown
Petersen of Marblehead
Resor of Middlesex and Worcester - Chair
Smizik of Brookline - Chair
Tarr of Essex and Middlesex
Walsh of Boston

----------------------

Speaker DiMasi is also a key figure who may decide that the Governor's bill
(H3757) needs to be rewritten.

For more information on the tidelands protection issue, go to
http://www.masschc.org/development.html, write info at masschc.org , or call
617-821-1453.
Thank you very much!

Jill Stein
for MCHC