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September 10, 2007
EMINENT DOMAINIA
Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Caring about Kelo
Columnist Dimitri Vassilaros sums up the US Supreme Court's Kelo decision and alerts readers about an eminent domain reform bill on the Hill:
In one of the court's most inane decisions, five of the nine justices held that the governmental taking of private property to give to another promising economic development constitutes a permissible "public use."
Now, government can take virtually any property and transfer title to another private owner -- probably with good political connections and very deep pockets -- who plans to make the property more valuable and therefore likely to generate more tax dollars for the government entity.
...
Two representatives in Congress who typically are at opposite ends of the political universe joined forces to further undermine Kelo.Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., introduced their Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2007 in July. For two fiscal years, the act would deny economic development funds to state and local governments that use eminent domain for private development.
Well, it's a start, but hardly a slam dunk.
AP, via Statesman Journal, UO to seek eminent domain for new arena
Eminent domain for an arena? They can't do that, right?? Right???
When Nike co-founder Phil Knight pledged $100 million to University of Oregon athletics last month, it seemed there was nothing left to stop plans for a new basketball arena.
But there is still the matter of the dental office, the 7-Eleven and a vacant building that used to house a Domino's Pizza. The three privately owned properties all sit on the site intended to house the new arena.
Today in Bend, the university will ask the state Board of Higher Education to allow the use of eminent domain for all three parcels, if necessary.
HartfordBusiness.com, A Value Proposition
This tale is a candidate for the Eminent Domainia Hall of Shame:
The theory of eminent domain is a laudable one: governments must have the ability to acquire private property for a greater public good. Unfortunately, government actors can’t seem to stop behaving like Snidely Whiplash, egotistically running around trying to snatch land with little more justification than an evil chortle.
Connecticut Superior Court Judge William T. Cremins just put the kibosh on a particularly insidious bit of socialism in Branford. Back in 2001, Thomas Barbara and Frank Perotti Jr. owned a 76-acre undeveloped parcel on Tabor Road. More than a decade before, the site had been approved for 298 residential condos, but they were never built. With approval in hand, however, the pair put the land up for sale, and a development company bit. New England Estates ponied up a $10,000 a month option, in order to eventually buy the property for $4.75 million.
In spring of 2003, New England Estates proposed building affordable housing at the site. But the town now claimed environmental contamination, issued a notice of condemnation in December of 2003, and took the property by eminent domain in January of 2004. Its plan was to keep the land vacant.
Posted by lumi at September 10, 2007 6:48 AM