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Eminent domain and private gain A report claims that 10,000 properties have been seized by cities for private developers. By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
PORT CHESTER, NEW YORK - Bill Brody thought he was set for life.
He'd bought and renovated four buildings on South Main Street in this struggling New York suburb and was successfully renting them out.
Then he was informed the village was taking his property - all of it. And because he missed a small, legal notice in the paper, he even lost the right to fight the decision.
The village had simply declared eminent domain, so that another private developer could build part of a Stop & Shop and parking lot where Mr. Brody's commercial buildings sat.
"It's ludicrous," says Brody. "If it was for a road or a school or a highway I wouldn't bother."
But since the village was taking his property only to give it to another private developer, Brody decided to take it to court.
The Constitution does give local governments the right to condemn property through eminent domain for "public use" if the owner is compensated. But in the past five years, both state and local governments have taken or threatened to take more than 10,000 homes and small businesses such as Brody's to turn them over to private developers, according to a report compiled by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy law firm in Washington.
The local governments contend they're creating bigger tax bases and more jobs to help the local economy. That's the "public use." But to critics it's an unconstitutional abuse.
"Practically every house in the entire country would produce more jobs and taxes as an office building, and everybody's small business would produce more jobs and taxes if it were removed and turned into a Costco," says Dana Berliner, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. "If that's all it takes, then your house or business can be up for grabs as soon as a some private business interest takes a fancy to it."
The increase in the use of eminent domain for private entities has created a groundswell of opposition from New York and Detroit to California.
The Institute for Justice's report documents dozens of instances of apparent abuse where states and local cities and towns put the interests of individual developers over longtime residents. For instance:
• In Atlantic City, an entire black middle-class neighborhood was condemned and destroyed to make way for a tunnel to a new casino.
• Bremerton, Washington removed a woman in her 80s from her home of 55 years for the claimed purpose of expanding a sewer plant, but gave her former home to an auto dealership.
• West Palm Beach County in Florida condemned a family's home so that the manager of a planned new golf course could live in it.
Many individuals are fighting the practice and the courts, which used to routinely rubber stamp local condemnations, are responding.
In 40 percent of the challenges to eminent domain brought between 1998 and 2002, courts sided with the original landowners. Six state legislatures have passed bills increasing protections for people threatened with eminent domain. Eleven others are considering such bills, including New York.
The practice of eminent domain has been abused throughout US history. When the railroads and many of the nation's highways were built, landowners were often told their properties were condemned, given a dollar and told to go to court if they wanted their "just compensation." But even using such high-handed tactics, most eminent-domain condemnations were used for clearly delineated public purposes.
In the early 1950s, a landmark case changed that. Washington, D.C., wanted to redevelop a rundown part of town. So it declared eminent domain and condemned the property by arguing that it constituted a public use by getting rid of the "blighted" area. The Supreme Court upheld the notion that it's a public good to get rid of blight, but made no determination one way or the other on the appropriateness of handing the property to private developers.
"The Supreme Court gave 'public use' definition by saying it had to be of public purpose," says Veronique Pluviose-Fenton, an attorney with National League of Cities. "Redeveloping brown fields can be seen as having a public use because it gets rid of an environmental hazard."
It wasn't until the booming 1990s - when real estate prices soared - that the practice of condemning property for private development really took off.
According to the Institute for Justice report, local governments went from condemning blighted areas to applying the practice to rundown neighborhoods. Then it began to be condemn properties in areas that looked just fine.
In Lakewood, Ohio, for instance, a whole neighborhood of colonial homes was recently deemed "blighted" because the backyards were too small and the homes didn't have two-car garages. The city is turning the property over to private developers to build upscale condominiums and retail space.
"Things have gotten worse as the word spread among businesses that they can acquire land without having to go through a bidding process," says Gideon Kanner, a professor emeritus at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and expert on the issue of eminent domain. "They can overcome opposition and force their way into communities that don't want them."
The National League of Cities' Ms. Pluviose-Fenton wouldn't comment on any individual case. But she admits there have been abuses. But in general, she insists the power of eminent domain is used responsibly and that the courts are there to act as a check and balance.
"I think local governments are keenly aware that that kind of abuse gets the attention of people in Washington who are, at a moments notice, ready to pass legislation that would restrict local authority."
Lawmakers in New York State are considering a bill that would at least require cities and towns to notify people like Mr. Brody that they're taking their land so that they can at least mount a legal fight.
Brody had wanted to challenge the city's designation of the street as "blighted." Just a few years earlier, it had spent a million dollars putting in new roads, underground wires, and quaint 19th street lamps. It had assessed him almost $60,000 for the upgrade. The street had a thriving, eclectic mix of antique shops, Latin restaurants and commercial space when it was condemned.
Several property owners, in addition to Brody, are challenging the city. But so far have had little luck with the local courts. "I've never, never seen anything like this," says Mike Rikon, an eminent domain attorney with 33 years experience who is representing several Port Chester landowners. "Since the beginning you could open the book and go down chapter by chapter and point out the violations of the law."
Anthony Cerreto, village attorney, wouldn't comment because the matter is in litigation.
Bill Brody has taken the case to federal court. A hearing is scheduled on June 2nd.
"We have to get the legislative and judicial branches to revisit this takings issue so it's a little more friendly to the people," he says. "Because that's what the laws are supposed to be there for - the people not the government."
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"Things have gotten worse as the word spread among businesses that they can acquire land without having to go through a bidding process," says Gideon Kanner, a professor emeritus at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and expert on the issue of eminent domain. "They can overcome opposition and force their way into communities that don't want them."
people need to start hiring PI's to track the $$$ back to the politicians, there's obviously serious corruption...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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Glassman I guess you are right what goes around comes around. And this is positive proof that money rules over property rights and common rights
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40 States Re-Examining Eminent Domain By ROBERT TANNER AP National Writer
LONG BRANCH, N.J. (AP) -- The city wants Anna DeFaria's home, and if she doesn't sell willingly, officials are going to take it from the 80-year-old retired pre-school teacher.
In place of her "tiny slip of a bungalow" - and two dozen other weathered, working-class beachfront homes - city officials want private developers to build upscale townhouses.
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Wallacy County in South Texas is about to take some land from a nature conservancy. Wallacy is dead-butt broke and desperate.
Eminent Domain is a clear example of Bush's true socialistic leanings. Big government and ultra government control and power is a classic example of Bush's Democractic/liberal side.
-------------------- Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth -- Proverbs 27:1
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This is an interesting subject. Around 8 years ago we knew an attorney that about 80% of the cases he handled were eminent domain cases. He had been doing these type of cases over 35 years, he started to tell us stories about how it had been and how it was now(8 years ago). It used to be that the state could come in and get your property for pennies on the dollar, but now they had to pay fair market value, if you fought them. He was winning up around 95% of his cases. I am sure it varies from state to state. I think to see whats really going on you have to review cases in your state.
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NEW LONDON, Conn. - The mayor of New London, where a fight over government seizing property led to a controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is proposing a compromise for a group of homeowners.
Under a plan presented to the City Council Monday night, four people whose homes were seized for a private development would be allowed to stay. The city would own their properties and the residents would have to pay the city to live there.
Two other homeowners were excluded from Mayor Beth Sabilia's plan; one doesn't live in the home and the other moved in after the court battle began.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that the quasi-public New London Development Corp. could take homes in the Fort Trumbull area for private economic development. The 94-acre project, proposed in 1998, calls for a hotel, office space and upscale housing.
The court also said states are free to ban the taking of property under eminent domain for such projects, and many states have begun considering such bans.
One of the property owners who sued over the Fort Trumbull seizures, Susette Kelo, said the mayor's proposal shows that the houses and the private development can coexist. But she and another plaintiff, Michael Cristofaro, said they aren't interested in paying rent for homes they owned.
"The ongoing battle of the last eight years has not been to allow us to live in our homes and pay rent to the city of New London until we die," Kelo said.
The city council voted Monday to collect rent from the homeowners while city Law Director Thomas Londregan studies the mayor's proposal.
Michael Joplin, president of the New London Development Corp., said the agency would defer to the council's decision.
The government offered what it said was fair value for the Fort Trumbull homes. Most residents took the money and left, but those remaining either say the money isn't enough or their homes aren't for sale at all. Money for the houses still standing has been set aside for the homeowners.
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