CAPR KING COUNTY- Main Focus
At the Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR), we have long championed the restoration and protection of private property rights across Washington State, particularly in King County and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Our work—tracking legislation, rating elected officials, mobilizing chapters, and advocating for equitable, science-based land-use policies—depends on a system where citizens can hold government accountable.
Election Integrity
At CAPR King County, election integrity leads our platform because restoring secure, transparent elections is essential to empowering all our advocacy efforts. When elections lack integrity, the collective voice of property owners and citizens is diminished or bypassed, enabling policies on land use, taxes, zoning, and eminent domain to advance without true representation.
Property Tax
In Washington State, homeowners and landowners face rising property tax burdens from escalating assessments, unlimited or expanded levies, and legislative proposals that allow local governments to increase taxes with minimal or no voter approval—such as attempts to triple annual growth caps, superficial “reforms” like SSB 6162’s rebranding and state levy consolidation, or expansions of taxing authority for mental health, affordable housing, and other programs funded largely by property owners.
At CAPR, we provide transparent bill tracking, analysis, and resources to expose these threats, empowering citizens to resist excessive taxation that risks forced sales or de facto takings and to defend constitutional property rights. Explore our tracked data, bill updates, and ways to get involved.
Water Rights
In Washington State, private water rights — historically attached to land ownership under the prior appropriation doctrine — face mounting threats from Department of Ecology instream flow rules, the 2016 Hirst Supreme Court decision that curtailed permit-exempt wells for rural homes and development, and active adjudications such as the ongoing WRIA-1 lawsuit in Whatcom and northern Skagit counties, where tribal senior claims and state actions seek to restrict or meter private wells.
At CAPR, we are actively studying these problems through detailed tracking of legislation, court cases, and agency overreach, while providing transparent resources, analyses, and mobilization support for affected landowners and partner efforts like POWWRA’s legal defense. Explore our tracked data, adjudication updates, and ways to get involved in defending water as a fundamental constitutional property right.
Agricultural Protections
In Washington State, with its 13.8 million acres of productive farmland, agriculture faces growing threats from foreign ownership (now 1.74 million acres or 8.1% of private ag land, often converted to wind farms or locked into conservation easements), restrictive land-use regulations such as King County’s Critical Areas Ordinance updates and riparian buffer mandates, wolf predation on livestock, and federal overreach including the Sustains Act and USDA policies that burden farmers and ranchers.
At CAPR, we are actively studying these challenges by tracking all agriculture-related legislation, rating bills and elected officials, exposing regulatory overreach through detailed analyses and alerts, and supporting affected producers via resources, wolf-management coalitions, and advocacy for scientifically sound, equitable policies that protect private property rights rather than force landowners to subsidize public goals. Explore our tracked data, legislative ratings, blog reports, and opportunities to join the fight to preserve Washington’s agricultural heritage and the constitutional rights of those who feed our state.
CITIZENS' ALLIANCE FOR PROPERTY RIGHTS- Restoring Private Property Rights Since 2003 