Real Estate & Property Law

Eminent Domain Round-Up

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

Eminent domain in the news:

• From the Virginian-Pilot comes "Government's power to take private property to go on trial," about a property owner's objection to a redevelopment taking:

It's a stark contrast between new and old, progress and past. The tension between the two has landed the university in the middle of a lawsuit that could set a precedent for redevelopment projects under way in Virginia.

A year ago, Norfolk's Redevelopment and Housing Authority moved to condemn the house and three other buildings to the south of ODU's University Village, saying the land was in a blighted area and is needed for the university's expansion.

The owners responded with a suit, saying the housing authority has no right to take their property, in part because the development of University Village in the past decade has cleaned up the blight.

The property owner's lawyer is my Owner's Counsel of America colleague Joseph Waldo.

• Eminent domain hurts business owners fighting for relocation assistance in Newark (via New Jersey Eminent Domain Law Blog)

• Check out the report posted on CNN about "US Climate Czar: CO2 Regulation Ruling To Come Soon." Buried in the last paragraph of the story is this nugget:

Separately, [Carol] Browner [President Obama's special advisor on climate change and energy] said the administration was also going to create an inter-agency task force to site a new national electricity transmission grid to meet both growing demand and the President's planned renewable energy expansion. Siting has been a major bottleneck to renewable growth, and lawmakers and administration officials have said they're likely to seek greater federal powers that would give expanded eminent domain authorities.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on February 23, 2009 (boomark / email).