Voters Back Limits on Eminent Domain
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Voters showed last week that the furor over a 2005 Supreme Court decision in a Connecticut eminent domain case has not abated, even in states that have already enacted legislation to restrict the use of condemnation for economic development. Ballot measures to limit eminent domain powers to public uses were approved by large margins in eight states. Louisiana passed an eminent domain measure in September. In all, 34 states have adopted laws or passed ballot measures in response to the Connecticut case, Kelo v. New London, which upheld the right of local officials to require the forced sale of homes and businesses for private development intended to increase the tax base of one of the state’s poorest cities. “A message has been sent that state and local governments have to do a better job of justifying a need for eminent domain,” said Larry Morandi, a land-use specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “There needs to be more negotiation and more transparency.” Donald J. Borut, the executive director of the National League of Cities, acknowledged that condemnation powers are sometimes abused. But he said that property-rights groups have played to public fears in a way that discourages thoughtful discussion about how individual rights should be balanced against projects that benefit the community as a whole. He described anti-Kelo sentiment as “a huge emotional tsunami that’s been rushing through the country.” Of the measures approved by voters, “about half of them are purely procedural or largely symbolic,” said John D. Echeverria, the executive director of the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute. In Florida, for example, the State Legislature, by a three-fifths vote of each house, can make an exception to a ban on transferring condemned property from one private entity to another. More : nytimes.com |