Your Home Is Your Castle, As Long As Your Neighbors Don’t Force You to Sell

This isn’t eminent-domain “lite,” as claimed, it is eminent domain “nearly-automatic”:

Cities pushing to get back limited eminent domain
Article Last Updated:10/29/2006 04:05:57 AM MST

In mid-September, the Utah League of Cities and Towns (ULCT) passed a resolution urging the Legislature to reinstate the right to condemn property for redevelopment purposes.

But instead of cities initiating condemnation, the league wants affected property owners to ask for it. These would be residents who agree to sell their properties and relocate so a developer can launch a commercial project.

Think of it as “eminent-domain lite.” Such a request by a majority of landowners would then allow the city to condemn the property of their neighbors who are holding out.

The league’s membership passed the resolution last month, according to Lincoln Shurtz, ULCT legislative analyst.

“There were a few ‘no’ votes, but of the 700-plus members in attendance, about 95 percent voted for it,” Shurtz said.

As he sees it, the league’s resolution is a step toward a legislative compromise.

“It would reinstate some authority [to the cities], but would have private-property protection built into it as well” - if a majority of those affected oppose a project or the use of eminent domain, he said.

The resolution is in response to the Legislature’s action two sessions ago to forbid cities to use property condemnation, or eminent domain, for commercial projects involving private developers.

This isn’t Kelo “lite” — It takes Kelo to a new level. Under what ULCT wants, the original New London dispute would never have gotten to court, as the majority in the Fort Trumbull area sold out, and if they had the power, would have forced Susette Kelo and the other holdouts to sell. It would have been over before it started.

Don’t be fooled. This is an extreme extension of Kelo, not a “lite” version of it.

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UPDATE: John Stossel has a great column at Townhall.com about theft by eminent domain and the situation in Long Branch, NJ. Imagine if Long Branch’s city fathers and developers had the power that the Utah League of Cities and Towns would like to see them have.