Chance Weldon

Chance Weldon appears in It’s my tree. Why can’t I cut it down? as litigation director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He became interested in the Canton, Michigan tree case after local reporting on the township’s large remediation demand.

Weldon’s argument turns the episode from a local-tree story into a constitutional property-rights case. He first framed severe tree restrictions as close to forced occupation of private property, then advanced a narrower Permit Proportionality argument that Canton’s standardized fee system was not sufficiently tied to each tree’s specific public value or harm.

Connections

• Texas Public Policy Foundation - organization where Weldon serves as litigation director in the source.
• Canton, Michigan - township whose ordinance Weldon challenged.
• Regulatory Takings - constitutional doctrine branch behind the challenge.
• Permit Proportionality - narrower argument that prevailed in the Sixth Circuit account.