I am selling a small piece of land to a guy who wants to build a home for his family in rural Pierce County. As part of splitting a parcel of land, Pierce County has many layers of bureaucrats that must provide approvals. One of these layers is “Archaeology”… basically looking for supposed artifacts before you are allowed to build. Pierce County (and the state of Washington) requires people who want to develop new homes to pay for an archaeological survey that costs $10,000. I was told by the county that I need to contact a representative of the Puyallup Tribe to find out who he wants me to pay this money to. This is just outright corruption – the tribe requests a survey gets done, then tells you who to give the money to.
This is what happens whenever government gets involved in “regulating” the freedoms and rights of people. This is why we have a housing shortage – no developer wants to be forced to make these corrupt payments that drive housing costs far higher.
Most developers won’t publicly share this sort of thing for fear of reprisals from these corrupt bureaucrats.