September 15 - Public Restrictions on Ownership

There are many general rules associated to property imposed by the government known as public restrictions on property ownership. These include taxation, eminent domain, police powers, and escheat. The most simple of these would be escheat, which simple means that if you do not name a heir after death, the government takes over the estate. Eminent domain is a law which states that the government may forcibly take property for the betterment of the community with just compensation. This can include creating a new school or highways, or even private structures such as the Dallas Cowboy stadium. The justification for private structures is that they bring in more revenue to the community via tax dollars.

The most infamous of all public restrictions of ownership of property would be taxation. Property taxes are usually expresed in millage rates based on a percentage of the assessed value of the land. This value is vastly different from real market values, and can usually be found using the internet. For those curious, you may search for your own homes assessed value in the Brazos county by using the link HERE. If taxes are unable to be paid, the property may be sold at public auctions by the government in order to pay for backed taxes.

A great example of zoning

When planning a city, most of the time a logical "road map" is made in which only certain types of structures are permitted to be built in specified zones. This is known as zoning, and most major cities adopt these policies in order to create a logical, efficient city design. A perfect example of this would be New York which has many zoning restriction in order to restrict building downtown. An example of what happens when zoning doesn't occur would be in Houston, which explain the rather bizarre placement of building sometimes.