Dear Editor:

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Ever heard that bit of advice? With due respect, I believe the grant money promised by the state for counties implementing a county comprehensive plan is suspect. The plan needs my inspection, and maybe yours, too. The real deal, as I see it, is that privately owned land is targeted for one of the largest precedent setting governmental controls in the history of Georgia.

Under the guise of Utopia, a land use map is being assembled in Effingham County. Never mind that the property is privately owned and is being maintained by property owners at the high cost of the property and its resulting tax assessment.

The proposed land use map designates value or lack thereof of the land; its mandated use or non-use based on its location in the county; and even to detailing areas of private property for public use. All this is being done without your knowledge or permission while you continue to pay taxes on property that could very conceivably become controlled or owned by the government.

Once the proposed land use map has been approved by the county commissioners targeted by June of this year, government will have executed a perfect legalized stealing of private property rights, all with the mentality of “what’s yours is mine and I’m going to take it.”

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for May 17. I urge you to attend and investigate the real purpose of the land use map under the umbrella of the “exhaustive county comprehensive plan” and demand a debate before our elected officials mandate it as law by this year (Effingham Herald, March 25, 2007 issue), as early as June. The plan has until 2012 to be developed and adopted. So, what is Effingham County’s officials’ big rush?

Carolyn Collins