Flannel Grid Utopia (My counter-idea to the 99-yr-leases)

Do your best to ignore the beautiful woman in this flannel shirt and just focus on the pattern on the shirt. This pattern best illustrates my idea as to how to manage the land in LL:

Red = Privately owned land, could be residential or commercial, comprises roughly 50% of all land

Dark color = Govt owned land controlled by citizens through e-voting, comprises roughly 50% of all land

The grid does not have to be square/rectangular; it could be any shape that fits the land. The key idea is that govt land always remains connected to other govt land. All the public roads will be on govt land. So far, this is how other govts work, but in my model, the LL govt would have around 50% of the properties on the sides of the road. If a road needs to be widened, not a problem, they have extra land on the sides of most roads.

All of this side-of-the road space could be leased out for various purposes, or be turned into trails/parks/etc. Instead of boring old side-walks, we could have “side-paths” flanked by nature. This would also give LL plenty of public space for my “Signs, Billboards and Media” program, which I haven’t yet finished, to be able to manage the culture better than modern govts have.

The “red” sections are simple to explain: they are sold by the LL govt to private citizens at auction. These auctions are staggered out over at least 20 years (maybe up to 50) because at first the land will not be worth much. Hopefully at year 20 (or more) this land will be worth much more and so will garner more money for the govt. Each years auction might have its own rules to bring in more of the type of owners desired by LL citizens at that time.

For instance, in the first few years, I imagine that the priority will be towards selling the land to citizens that will actually live full-time in LL and thus build a base of workers (and voluntary tax-payers) to sustain future infrastructure. Another priority at first might be to sell to small and medium business owner citizens to supply jobs to the full-time settlers.

I propose that large businesses only be given the option to rent out govt owned land so that they can be kicked out at the will of the combined citizenry. Perhaps this rule should also apply to anyone wanting more than two properties (1 for residential and 1 for commercial) so as to keep billionaire-type interests from buying up all available properties at auction-winning prices.

The money from the initial sales of private lands can go directly towards constructing buildings on govt lands in ways that will bring in rental income, such as making office buildings, apartment buildings, or warehouses. Hopefully this rental income will eventually be enough to fund the minimum law/order parts of govt (see my Treat voluntary taxes as a multi-stage crowd-funding campaign thread) and then people don’t have to worry about the govt dissolving because it didn’t raise enough voluntary taxes that year.

It might be a good idea to have an elected position as “Govt Rental Manager” to ensure all these rentals are run ethically and non-criminally.

Since all the “red” sections are their own blocks, it might be best for the govt to either keep a small parcel of land in the center under govt ownership as this could then be used as a communal utility hub and park (paid for by community, not govt). There could be a communal septic facility here and a communal solar array and a communal large water tank with rainwater harvesting capability and also park facilities like playground, etc. If the utility aspect isn’t needed, this land could still be used as a park. This would ensure that every “red” section community has a park attached to it for kids, dogs and get-togethers. The land would be owned by the govt but the DAO that manages it would be completely funded and run by the local community, though maybe the govt website could have a section for community DAOs and this could help with the organizational aspect of the DAOs at very little extra cost to the govt.

I propose that there be no distinction between who can own any specific piece of privately-held land, a business or a private citizen. Only that high nuisance businesses (usually noise or high truck traffic) must segregate themselves to areas where there are larger plots of land where they will be less of a nuisance (perhaps LL should designate one area upfront that is to have the highest nuisance businesses [probably furthest from the Danube]). But having a law firm between two residential houses doesn’t trouble anyone and can relieve some of the pressure that builds up when areas are over-populated. The law firm generally has people activity M-F during business hours when houses have lower activity, and at night the law firm has minimal activity while the houses have high activity.

Another benefit of constructing commercial structures for rent using public funds is that the citizens can vote on the types of structures they want and each structure could be built in a different way so that LL gets on the map as a destination for experimental architecture. Any Eastern European LLers must resist the urge to make every building into a "Commie-Bloc"! lol

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Very good idea. :+1:

Although, I haven’t been focusing on the shirt until I read the article. ;-). Good marketing from your side :slight_smile: :+1:.

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I had a similar idea but I think your approach to this problem is far superior. The fact that publicly owned DAO ran parks would be prevalent is a huge boost to neighborhood morale. I would also like to point out that your staggered parcel approach answers my dilemma about how the “square mile block” approach is done in the western US and you also answered the easement question which I brought up in prior discussions which was also an issue that I had not been able to formulate a proper answer on.

The fact that public building policy would be voted on by the voters I think speaks volumes as to the future of not just Liberland but also how DAO’s would operate in managing land. This is something that I brought up in my “How a DAO-CLT Model Could Work In Liberland” I wrote a few days ago, but you just removed a layer of bureaucracy from it, that under US law is a necessary component to insulating the organization from external government meddling and I mistakenly applied it to Liberland when the reality is that the CLT component isn’t necessary if your approach by using public policy voting on “government lands” and also the DAO’s would have complete control over the lands that they own.

This is the best writing I have seen yet of yours Murf it is very bold and forward thinking, keep it up!

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Thanks a lot guys, that is high praise! Hopefully this approach brings in all the benefits from the 99-yr-leases and gets rid of most of the negatives. Imagine if we could fund the entire govt just from leasing apartments, offices, and warehouses… It would truly be a zero tax system!

Martin I do think your CLT idea is the best way forward towards creating a freedom community in the US. I’m not sure if I could ever leave the US permanently, so I’m going to keep think-tanking this idea for potential use in a low cost per acre area.

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Yes the CLT will work here in the US for sure, I am in Missouri and you can find cheap land all day in the Ozarks.

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I’ve never even considered Missouri for anything, outside of one friend from there in the military that always referred to it as “misery”. Now that I’m looking at the map of it, it seems more interesting. I do like low-lying mountains; all of the beautiful hills and water features and none of the extreme cold of high mountains.

Let’s start a new thread about a US based CLT!

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Were you Army? If so you have had to have heard of Fort Leonard Wood it’s in south central MO

Never heard of it, the closest I ever got was the bases in Georgia.