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September 2, 2012
San Bernardino Eminent Domain Fight Closely Watched By Other Struggling Communities
Huffington Post
By Ben Hallman
Eminent Domain was used by New York State to get home- and business-owners to leave a Prospect Heights site so that it could be turned over to a billionaire developer and Russian oligarch for the Atlantic Yards project. Here's a proposal to use Eminent Domain to keep people in their homes.
Gregory Devereaux is the chief executive of San Bernardino County and its 2 million residents. At his urging, local authorities are considering a proposal that would allow local governments to exercise their power to seize private property without landowners' consent in a dramatic -- some say radical -- new way.
Governments usually use this power, known as eminent domain, to acquire private land for public purposes, such as roads or utility lines. But this plan, proposed by a San Francisco-based venture fund Mortgage Resolution Partners, calls for government authorities to seize the mortgages of underwater borrowers, paying the investors that own them a fraction of what they are owed, using money borrowed from the fund. Homeowners could then refinance with a federal loan at a much lower rate, based on what their home is actually worth instead of what they owe.
Posted by steve at September 2, 2012 3:22 PM