# How can anyone defend closing of private property on Federal land? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 6, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-defend-closing-of-private-property-on-federal-land/670534 "2013-10-06T22:26:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 4
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-defend-closing-of-private-property-on-federal-land/670534/4 "2013-10-06T23:33:32Z")
> [@JustBecause14](#): > > Re: the shutdown. In particular, I am wondering what point it serves to close hotels/restaurants (Blue Ridge Inn) & force people from their private homes (Lake Meade). Two different issues here – one, the hotels/restaurants, was addressed in a different thread: > [@WWII Memorial shutdown controversy](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-memorial-shutdown-controversy/670354/53): > > Four, as for privately run campgrounds being closed. Those campgrounds are concessions within the park boundaries - just like **many restaurants, hotels, shops, and recreational vendors**. **Their contract clearly states that when the park is closed, they need to close**. If you think about it, it would be ridiculous to close the park, but then allow people in to camp there. A similar situation would an individual store owner within a mall - if the mall rules are we close at 10PM, then you need to close at 10PM. Sucks for the campground owners, but they signed the contract. Also, yes a small piece of the money earned by those concessions does go to the government, and we appreciate it - but those feed don’t come anywhere close to covering the costs of running a park. (bolding mine) No controversy there IMO.\*\* They signed a contract saying they have no entitlement to operate when the park does not.\*\* End of story. No sympathy. As for residences, there’s that line in the above-linked report: > [@](#): > > **The Lake Mead properties are considered vacation homes** ; one of the lease requirements to own a plot is people must have an alternative residence. (Bolding mine, again.) IOW this cabin\*\* is NOT supposed to be the person’s sole or primary homestead.\*\* We would have to read the master deed to see what restrictions and requirements were explicitly placed on the lease, and if the Park Service may have been derelict in not enforcing that clause and allowing it to become a place of permanent domicile and therefore negligently created an embarrassment for themselves and a hardship for the tenants. IIRC in cases where someone owns a cabin but not the land it sits on, they usually can expect to have the status of tenants and be entitled to an easement to access the housing. But people may become misled by how, especially out West, a lot of homes and businesses are on generic Bureau of Land Management lands, which means federal property that the government leases or franchises to those who would occupy or use the land for authorized purposes and to which the rights commonly accruing a lessor or tenant apply. And that is \*\*different \*\*from land that is actual part of an operating federal installation, such as a National Park, Forest, Monument, or Recreation Area, which can be closed and have access denied. Those displaced persons in Nevada may have mistakenly believed their lots’ status was the former, or thought “oh, no way they could close all this desert, they’ll just shut down their actual facilities but leave the accesses alone”. > [@](#): > > Isn’t this just the Feds being a bunch of bullies just because they can? No, it’s “a shutdown of nonessential government activities” which includes the Parks and that means **the Parks,** all they contain, not just the Visitor Center office. And hey, nobody gets fired for obeying the letter of the law. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-anyone-defend-closing-of-private-property-on-federal-land/670534)._