Eminent Domain

Woman vs. eminent domain

Eighty-year-old Emma Dimasi has told friends and neighbors she wants to live the rest of her years on the corner of Clifton and Dixmyth avenues, in the small brick house she's owned since 1959. The city has given her until Saturday to get out. In a case that could have statewide implications, a Hamilton County magistrate will decide Monday whether the city of Cincinnati has the right to take Dimasi's house for a $4 million relocation of Dixmyth Avenue. The taking of Dimasi's house is a routine and long-accepted use of eminent domain for a city like Cincinnati, which has filed 21 such court actions for road projects since 2003. But Dimasi argues that private economic development - not public transportation - is driving the road project. That's because Good Samaritan Hospital is contributing $1.28 million toward the project, which would give the hospital more room to grow as it continues a $122 million expansion. Under its agreement with the city, the hospital also stands to get whatever land is left over after road construction for $1. The case is the first to test an Ohio law banning for one year the use of eminent domain for economic development if the property will ultimately end up in the hands of another private owner. And it's a prime example of what critics say is a legal system that stacks the deck against property owners....

Plans to condemn Southern Baptist church proceed after 6-0 vote for eminent domain

Another step was taken toward the destruction of the Filipino Baptist Fellowship building March 13 when the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board voted 6-0 to condemn the church in order to build condominiums, despite testimonies from community members regarding the public good that flows from the religious institution. “I had no illusions that we were going to stop the vote, but what was most discouraging yesterday was the utter lack of any evidence on why this was necessary to cure some blighted areas blocks away,” John Eastman, director of The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence who is defending the church, told Baptist Press. “They didn’t bother to answer that. That was their legal obligation, and they went ahead and condemned a church anyway.” During the hearing, the redevelopment agency voted to authorize the city attorney to begin condemnation proceedings, Eastman explained. The next step will be for the city attorney to file a complaint to condemn the property, which includes demonstrating that it meets the statutory requirements for condemnation....

Groups File Lawsuit In Fight Over Golf Club

Lawsuits were filed Tuesday aimed at stopping an affluent suburban village from using the legal concept of eminent domain to take over a privately owned golf course. "This proposed condemnation may be the most extreme abuse of eminent domain in the country," said John Wilson, a Deepdale Golf Club member named as a plaintiff. The village's mayor said the federal and state lawsuit were a "pre-emptive strike" and no decision has been made on whether to proceed with a takeover of Deepdale, considered one of the finest golf courses in the country. But in North Hills -- a 2.8 square mile community of 1,800 residents on Long Island's "gold coast," where housing prices begin in the millions -- members of the Deepdale Club are rallying to save their 175-acre facility from being taken by village officials. The federal suit questions the village's right to seize the property through eminent domain; the state case challenges the village's alleged abuse of zoning law to cut secret deals with private developers. Wilson said in a statement that the takeover "has nothing to do with a master plan that promotes the public good or eliminating blight, issues usually behind eminent domain. Rather, it is a naked grab for private property in an apparent effort to satisfy the private desires of a few elected officials."....

Eminent domain fears aired

Gopal Panday says after he built Rainbow Liquors on Broadway in Long Branch into a million-dollar-a-year business, it turned worthless overnight in the eyes of New Jersey's much-maligned eminent-domain law. "Under eminent domain laws, it doesn't provide you with anything for your business," Panday said Monday after testifying before the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee. "Just the land," he said. Flood victim Linda Brnicevic of Bound Brook described how she says eminent domain there is being used to uproot minorities. Residents of Camden's Cramer Hill neighborhood asked why eminent domain has them being moved out of a stable and tidy area. Eminent domain, the process whereby government exercises legal steps to take private property for what it envisions as the good of the community, is under fire in New Jersey for instances in which it is being used to promote economic redevelopment....

Stockbridge couple have ally in mayor

The couple fighting the city of Stockbridge's efforts to use eminent domain laws to forcibly buy their business might get to keep the property after all. At a raucous City Council meeting Monday evening, Stockbridge Mayor R.G. "Rudy" Kelley said he would ask his fellow council members to vote on whether Mark and Regina Meeks may keep their florist shop. The vote is contingent on getting written notification from the couple that they want to keep the shop. "I will send them a letter tomorrow," said a smiling Mark Meeks. The Meekses' battle shined a spotlight on eminent domain — laws allowing governments to force property owners to sell their land. State lawmakers are considering legislation changing how it's used in Georgia. Last March, the Stockbridge City Council approved plans to redevelop its struggling downtown with a new City Hall, homes, shops and offices on about 22 acres. The Meekses have vigorously resisted the city's efforts — saying Stockbridge negotiated in bad faith. City officials deny such claims....

Eminent domain debated

State legislatures and city councils around the country are debating what limits should be put on the power of local governments to take property by eminent domain. In November, Ohio voters might also get a say. Some lawmakers say nothing short of amending the state constitution - requiring a vote on a statewide ballot - will curb perceived abuses of eminent domain by cities. That's because Ohio's 1912 constitution gives cities and villages the power of home rule - allowing them to set their own standards for the taking of private property. "No bill that we pass will impact every local government unless we amend the constitution," said state Sen. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, the author of one such amendment. His proposal, outlined for a special legislative task force Thursday, wouldn't change the way eminent domain is used in Ohio - he'd leave that up to state lawmakers. His amendment would require only that all municipalities follow state law when they take property....

Voters Block Taking Of Souter’s Property By Eminent Domain

There won’t be any “taking” of Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s farmhouse to make way for the Lost Liberty hotel. By a 3-1 margin, voters in Souter’s hometown voted down a proposal Tuesday 1,167 too 493 that would have allowed the town to seize his 200-year-old farmhouse under eminent domain. Angered by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision last year in the property rights case of Kelo v. New London, activists sought to take Souter’s property as a payback. Voters instead asked the town Board of Selectman to urge the state to adopt a law that would forbid seizures of property by eminent domain. Souter, a long-time resident of Weare, home to about 9,500, was in the majority for the 5-4 eminent domain case of Kelo v. City of New London , Conn., last June in which the Supreme Court ruled that government entities can take private property if the land is for public use. In Kelo, the Court said New London could take private property through eminent domain for the development of a hotel and convention center. A group of activists, led by California resident Logan Darrow Clements, wanted Souter's 200-year-old farmhouse and eight acres seized for the purpose of building an inn to be known as the Lost Liberty Hotel....

New Mexico governor’s property ripe for eminent domain?

After the infamous 2005 Kelo v. City of New London decision, Logan Darrow Clements started an eminent domain campaign against US Supreme Court Justice Souter’s New Hampshire home. The point: Build Lost Liberty Hotel in its place, which would provide greater economic benefits to the community. Clements was justified: The Court’s slim 5-4 decision cited economic development as justification for essentially taking one’s property and delivering it to another private party. Darrow should go after any property New Mexico Gov. Richardson owns in “The Land of Enchantment”. Why? On March 8, Richardson became the first governor since Kelo to veto legislation that would have helped protect property owners against condemnation. The Rio Grande Foundation (RGF), a New Mexico think tank, distributed a media release deriding Richardson’s property rights snub....

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In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo decision regarding eminent domain, we are delighted to inform you that our recent Independent Policy Forum, "Eminent Domain: Abuse of Government Power?", will air on C-SPAN2 on Sunday, March 19th.
http://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=114

Here is the exact airing time:

Sunday, March 19th, 1:15 p.m. ET (10:15 a.m. PT) C-SPAN2
http://www.booktv.org/General/index.asp?segID=6696&schedID=408

The program features presentations by:

STEVEN GREENHUT, Senior Editorial Writer, Orange County Register, and author of Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain.

TIMOTHY SANDEFUR, Staff Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation.