Eminent Domain is Alive and Well
Steve Cook , January 21, 2010
Nearly five
years ago, the Supreme Court sanctioned the use of eminent domain-the
government’s power to condemn property-for economic rather than public
purposes. Many viewed the case of Kelo
v. City of New London as a watershed in the historic struggle between
private property rights and public need.
In the
backlash that followed the decision, 43 states passed laws limiting the use of
eminent domain. Thousands of families continue to lose their homes every
year, though most were lost to public works projects rather economic
development projects like the one in New
London.
The lack of
state or national data makes it very difficult to assess how frequently and for
what purposes governments are condemning homes and property. However, there are
indications that as stimulus funds make their way to the state and local
levels, more property than ever may be at risk.
“Spending
billions to repair and expand our nation’s aging infrastructure will require governmental
agencies to acquire properties through eminent domain. But it is vital that
these real estate acquisitions are conducted with fairness and openness with
full disclosure of the facts,” said David Lewis, whose firm advises governments
on property acquisitions.
Airports,
water projects, highways, power lines, windmills, bridges, universities, even
Maryland horse tracks are using or considering using governmental eminent
domain powers to acquire land, even though surveys and polls continue to show two
out of three citizens oppose eminent domain.
Much of the
attention lately has focused on New
York, one of the few states that has not passed
legislation in the wake of the Kelo decision and
continues to allow condemnations for economic development purposes. In
2002, Columbia University
announced plans to expand its campus onto 17 acres in West
Harlem, which would displace 400 residents and light industrial
businesses employing more than 1,600 people. Last month Columbia University
lost an appellate court decision on the grounds that it had failed to make a
case for the use of eminent domain.
The
New Jersey Nets basketball team, however, won the court’s approval to
build a new home for the team in the much-litigated Atlantic Yards project in
Brooklyn, a case that is being appealed to the state supreme court.
Hundreds of families live in the project’s 22-acre footprint. At the site
of the Barclays Bank Center
on Prospect Heights, the denizens of a local bar
have vowed cuff themselves to the “Chains of Justice” that manager has
conveniently installed on the bar. “Because people like bars and people hate
banks,” explained the manager.
A group
called the Institute for Legal Justice analyzed current New
York cases and found that eminent domain for private use is
disproportionately trained on the poor and particularly on minorities in New York City and Long Island.
Project areas where eminent domain is authorized have a greater percentage of
minority residents (92 percent) compared to surrounding communities (57
percent). Median incomes in project areas are less ($21,323.32) than
surrounding areas ($29,880.25). And residents of project areas are more likely
to be impoverished (28 percent) than in surrounding communities (17 percent).
Meanwhile,
up the road in New London, Connecticut, the homes destroyed by the
project that Suzanne Kelo fought so hard five years
ago are now vacant, weed-filled lots. Pfizer, the sponsor of the project
that was to bring economic development to the community, announced last year
that it was pulling out of New London.
Not only is it abandoning the homes Kelo fought
to save, it is shutting down its massive New London research and
development headquarters and transferring most of the 1,400 people working
there.
Scott Bullock,
Kelo’s co-counsel in the case, told the Washington
Examiner, “This shows the folly of these redevelopment projects that use
massive taxpayer subsidies and other forms of corporate welfare and abuse
eminent domain.”
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2010/01/eminent-domain-is-alive-and-well/