Eminent Domain is Alive and Well
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"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 future 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).http://www.upi.com/Real-Estate/2010/01/21/Eminent-Domain-is-Alive-and-Well/5911264089147/
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