Advance Community Rights

March 11th, 2014

For a pdf version, click here <http://celdf.org/downloads/PR_NH_Town_Meetings_031114.pdf> .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Four New Hampshire towns took up the issue of Community Rights at Town Meeting today.  Alexandria, Hebron, Barrington, and Danbury considered warrant articles to expand the rights of the communities to local democracy and sustainability. They join an increasing number of New Hampshire communities that are coming together to secure the rights of their communities to make the critical decisions about their own futures.

In Alexandria, Danbury and Hebron, the communities are threatened with industrial wind turbines.  At Town Meeting, residents in all three towns adopted Community Bills of Rights Ordinances asserting their rights to local self-governance and banning unsustainable energy projects. The Ordinances were voted in by 320 to 119 in Alexandria, in Danbury 264 to 124 and in Hebron, the vote was 88 to 17.

Communities around Newfound Lake and elsewhere in Grafton County face industrial wind turbines, which threaten the environment, unspoiled ridgelines, and local economies that rely on tourism. Residents witnessed the devastation from turbines in the nearby Town of Groton. When they learned of the turbines coming to their communities, they contacted the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) for assistance.

Barrington, threatened with gravel mining and water withdrawals, brought forward a similar Community Bill of Rights Ordinance to protect their community. Faced with opposition from some town officials, the measure did not gain the majority of votes.  Residents understand their work is part of a longer-term effort to recognize the rights of communities and nature, and are planning on moving the Ordinance forward again at Town Meeting in 2015.

 

Following the votes, CELDF’s Gail Darrell stated, “New Hampshire residents understand that we live under a structure of law that elevates corporate rights over those of the community. That structure will change only when the people demand change.  Today’s Town Meetings show that the people of New Hampshire are demanding change.  We look forward to driving this work to the next level across the State, and invite the larger community to join us.”

Following the vote in Alexandria, resident Michelle Sanborn affirmed, “We the people have declared our right to protect our community.  This is about our communities having the authority to decide what happens in our town, not corporations.”

Over the past several years, a number of New Hampshire communities have enacted Community Bills of Rights Ordinances.  The Ordinances codify the inalienable rights of communities to govern themselves, to protect and preserve their local ecosystems and economies, and to create sustainable energy systems.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a public interest law firm assisting communities across the country in grassroots organizing to assert Community Rights to democratic local self-governance, to recognize the Rights of Nature, and to create sustainable communities through local law-making. CELDF has assisted more than 150 communities in drafting laws that protect them from harmful corporate activities such as shale gas drilling and fracking, factory farming, and corporate water withdrawals, and eliminate corporate “rights” at the municipal level when they violate Community Rights to clean air and water, local self-governance, and the Rights of Nature.