This ordinance drips with typical elitist RhodeMapRI arrogance, where town planners believe they know what's best for town farmers.

Statement on Exeter’s Mini RhodeMapRI Proposed Ordinance; Public Hearing Tonight

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 26, 2017

Exeter Planners Plan to Restrict Property Rights?

Farmland Sustainability Cannot be Achieved via Regulation

Providence, RI – Tonight, residents and farmers in the town of Exeter will once again turn out en masse to speak out against a proposed new ordinance that would restrict property rights for landowners. According to the nonpartisan Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, the Ocean State’s leading pro-family, pro-business research and advocacy organization, the ordinance comes directly out of the RhodeMap RI playbook.

“This ordinance drips with typical elitist RhodeMapRI arrogance, where town planners believe they know what’s best for town farmers,” said Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center, which years ago led the public protest against the anti property-rights statewide scheme. “The planners’ radical vision for a sustainable and bucolic environment directly countermands the rights and freedom that farmers need to operate a sustainable business.”


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The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!

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The ominously named ordinance, the Exeter Farm and Forest Accessory Business Overlay, would arbitrarily restrict normal business activities of farmers and could lead to future property-rights infringements on other property owners, and could create a precedent that might spread to other cities and towns.

While the Center believes that land-use decisions should be made locally, as opposed to via state or federal mandates, it is also important that residents and policymakers understand that ordinances such as these are part of a larger, anti-business, anti-family radical green agenda.

The Center encourages property rights advocates to attend this evening’s 7:00 p.m. public hearing at the Metcalf School cafeteria, located at 30 Nooseneck Hill Road in Exeter.

Earlier this month, this same ordinance was temporarily pulled after hundreds of concerned citizens over-flowed the town council chambers in opposition. But the town-planners apparently were not to be deterred: As former President Ronald Reagan famously said, “The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.”


The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!

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