Eminent Domain | Condemnation

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ALI-CLE, the good folks who put on the annual programs on Eminent Domain and Land Valuation, and Condemnation 101: How to Prepare and Present an Eminent Domain Case, have announced the dates and venue for the 2015 conferences:

Thursday – Saturday, February 5-7, 2015 

Hotel Nikko, in San Francisco.

Those of you who have attended or taught at these conferences in the past know they are the premier programs on this topic, and feature exciting presentations and excellent faculty.

I’ve been honored to be asked to serve as the Planning Co-chair of the 32d annual Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation program, stepping into the able shoes of Leslie Fields, who retired last year. Joe Waldo is continuing as Planning Co-Chair. Joe and I are currently putting together the agenda and faculty for the program, and we will have more on that soon. Andrew…

Continue Reading Mark Your Calendars: 2015 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation, and Condemnation 101 – February 5-7, 2015, San Francisco

Here are two recent reports on the progress of the Honolulu rail project that should be read in-tandem:

Both stories are partially behind a paywall, but here’s the relevant bits. The first story reports that HART, the city agency created to build and operate the rail is in “another race against time,” this time to acquire the private property it needs to build the rail’s easternmost stretch through Honolulu’s urban core (the tough part, in other words). According to HART, acquisition of access is “our single highest priority.” Which sounds like a big bite: HART Director “Grabauskas and HART staff say they’re aiming to do some 18 months of work negotiating those properties in only six months’ time. They intend to purchase approximately…

Continue Reading Honolulu Rail And The Use Of Eminent Domain

Here’s what we’re reading today:

  • Eminent Domain, Ultra Vires, and Adverse Possession Walk Into a Bar… – from SCOV Law, a blog about the decisions of the Vermont Supreme Court: “Get ready to dust off your nineteenth-century-property-law hats, folks, cause this case is chock-full of neglected old cases about rail beds, public trails, adverse possession, eminent domain, and railroad corporations venturing outside the realm of their existential purpose.”
  • Writ to Watch: Ruggles v. Yagong – from Rebecca Copeland at Record on Appeal, about a case which the Hawaii Supreme Court recently agreed to review. The issue is whether an ordinance adopted by the voters of the County of Hawaii (the Big Island) is preempted by state law. The initiative ordinance made it the official policy of the County to make enforcement of personal use of marijuana the lowest priority for the police and prosecutors. Oh my. The trial court

…
Continue Reading Wednesday’s Reading List: Vermont Eminent Domain, The Big Island’s Weed Ordinance, And Quo Warranto

Here’s a quick update on a recent post about an Orlando church which is being targeted by the city so it can build a new stadium for a privately-owned soccer franchise.

Turns out the church has hired our Owners’ Counsel colleague and friend Andrew Brigham, and will be opposing the taking on public use grounds, among others. More about the church’s response here and here. 

This just got really interesting. 

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RLUIPA And The Condemnation Of Church-Owned Property
Orlando Plans to Swipe Church Property to Build a Soccer Stadium
Church Prepares to Fight City’s Eminent Domain Lawsuit for Soccer Stadium
Orlando City stadium pics unveiled
Orlando Plans To Overtake A Church To Build A Soccer Stadium
Orlando Shows Off Stadium Renderings

Continue Reading Orlando Church To Fight Taking

Our friends and colleagues over at RLUIPA Defense blog Evan Seeman and Dwight Merriam have posted on a case is generating some media attention, and might be interesting to watch.

Orlando wants — what else — a new sports venue. A soccer stadium. And the city is using — what else — eminent domain to get it. One property standing in the way is a family-owned parcel which currently is being used for a church. [Barista’s note: soccer, you have hit the Big Leagues when municipalities are using their eminent domain power to take private property for your stadiums.] You know the drill: city offers low, owners want high, a deal doesn’t materialize, and the next thing you know, eminent domain complaint filed. 

So check out “RLUIPA & Eminent Domain – City of Orlando to Take Church Property to Construct Major League Soccer Stadium.” And while you are at it, see…

Continue Reading RLUIPA And The Condemnation Of Church-Owned Property

Battle for Brooklyn film poster

You remember Battle for Brooklyn, the documentary which chronicles the eminent domain fight over New York’s Atlantic Yards project? (Read our review of the film here to refresh your recollection.)

Well here’s the latest chapter. Or perhaps “epilogue” is more appropriate, because the former property owners have long since been evicted, the homes have been razed, and the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets are ensconced in the Barclays Center. (The promised affordable housing and “jobs, jobs, jobs?” Eh, not so much, but who’s counting?)

According to this story in the New York Times, preservationists are planning to award the private beneficiaries of the city’s exercise of eminent domain something called the “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal.” Seriously:

The Municipal Art Society is well known for campaigns to save Grand Central Terminal and Lever House and to stop towers that would have cast long shadows over…

Continue Reading Atlantic Yards: How About Calling It The “Jay Z” Medal?

…No, not Sgt. Pepper. It was on this day in 1984 that the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 8-0 decision in Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984), as this article (“Today in 1984: SCOTUS Upholds Hawaii Land Redistribution Eminent Domain Plan“) correctly notes.

Check it out. The author, “an attorney practicing in the areas of family law and estate planning” (?) does a good job and asks valid questions:

Why was there so little outcry against Midkiff, which involved a government takings program far vaster than that at issue in Kelo? For one, there has been a rise in general distrust of government among the populace between Midkiff and Kelo. But, perhaps more significantly, as noted in an earlier Today in Legal History installment, Kelo’s property transfer was, generally speaking, from poor to rich, whereas Midkiff’s transfers were…

Continue Reading It Was 30 Years AgoToday…

Grove-arcade-2

Those of us who practice eminent domain and land use law see the world through a different lens than everyone else. When normal people get stuck in traffic because of highway construction, they may view it as a mass of cement mixers, graders, and safety-vested crews. We eminent domain lawyers see partial takes, severance damages, limited access problems, and recalcitrant DOT’s. Where others see a harbor or a dam, we see navigational servitudes. Where others see billboards, we wonder if it’s a fixture for which the owner is entitled to compensation. And that’s not a train, it’s a future rails-to-trails issue. 

Come on, you’re among friends — you can admit if you’ve done the same. 

When we travel away from our home base, we somehow locate the eminent domain angle, no matter how obscure. We’ve done it before, and even once crossed over into “nuclear…

Continue Reading Eminent Domain Tourism, Asheville Edition

Ah, the speed of the internet: we were all set to write up the recent decision by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Sorenti Bros., Inc. v. Commonwealth, No. SJC-11420 (May 19, 2014), when we noticed that the good folks over at the Massachusetts Land Use Monitor had already done so. 

So if the question of whether a gas station owner can recover compensation by virtue of the Commonwealth eliminating a roundabout and thereby (allegedly) impeding access to the station floats your boat, read all about it here: SJC Reverses Eminent Domain Judgment For Impacts From Sagamore Bridge “Flyover.” 

One note: compare the way the SJC treats the issue with how the Supreme Court of Canada treated a similar (thought not exactly the same) situation. 

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O Canada! Supreme Court Affirms Compensation For Causing Business Losses

Continue Reading Mass: Gov’t Not Liable For Impacts Of Road Project On Nearby Business

Worth reading: Gideon Kanner, Detroit and the Decline of Urban America, 2013 Mich. St. L. Rev. 1547 (2014), in the forthcoming issue of that august publication. Its not yet available on the law review’s web site, but Professor Kanner has written up a summary on his blog (he might even send you a copy of the complete article if you ask him):

It deals with the causes of decline of older American cities; what caused their populations to leave en masse and move to the suburbs, leaving behind empty swaths of urban desolation (If you want to see how desolate, go to Google, type in “ruins of Detroit” and hit “enter.’ Here are some samples).

His summary includes the key points of the article, and identifies six factors as contributing to urban flight and depopulation, including abuse of the eminent domain power. 

The article is a fascinating and…

Continue Reading New Article Of Note: The Role Of Eminent Domain Abuse In Detroit’s Downfall