Real Estate & Property Law

Virginia's Kelo invitation

By Alan Ackerman

Pilot Online

A circuit judge has cleared the way for the city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority to buy a handful of properties along Hampton Boulevard, agreeing with the agency that the area between 38th and 41st streets is still blighted.

Property owners there tried to block the authority from using eminent domain to take their land, saying redevelopment in recent years has improved the neighborhood so much that it no longer meets the state's definition of a troubled area.

On Friday, the property owners' attorney said he planned to appeal Norfolk Circuit Judge Louis A. Sherman's decision to the state Supreme Court.

"Ultimately, the Supreme Court gets to make the decision," attorney Joe Waldo said. "And we believe, ultimately, we'll prevail. They are essentially using the protection of outdated law to take property."  Virginia Pilot, July 25,2009

Mr. Waldo got this right.  The Virginia State Supreme Court will have to make individual decisions as to whether public use is for simple economic gain.  Virginia is ripe to accept the Kelo invitation to prohibit takes for economic gain within its jurisdiction.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on August 05, 2009 (boomark / email).