Highland's decision to use this road, was after their failure in appropriating 9850 N for this purpose. For the past 20 years, 9850 N was on Highland City's master plan as a 3 lane collector. The residents along this road, had a distinct advantage, because residents from both sides of the street were able to voice their vocal opposition. Today, I am expressing outrage that my voice is not being heard by the ultimate deciders of this ill-conceived plan. The Highland City Council, has expressly chosen a road on their border, in order to decrease the opposition of their plan, by effectively dividing the affected parties. We must not allow this plan to be implemented because of this attempted division. To address this matter ethically, the three councils, together, must meet to hear all the residents affected by this proposed roadway. Anything less will be a serious breach of government responsibility and an invitation to legal action. I ask that the American Fork City Council take action to stop this proposed roadway.
I am asking for your Freeper help, even though you don't live here because time is extremely short, and I need all the publicity and opposition that I can get.
Kelo was about using eminent domain to take property on behalf of people who would generate more tax revenue for the city than the current residential owners.
That is absolutely wrong.
If they are pulling a bait-and-switch, and are actually going to give your property to a commercial developer, that's one thing. If they really are going to build a road, that is quite another.
You may be able to delay it, but it’s legit use of the law........Best you can do is hold out for mo’ money............
Make sure you get what they appraise the value for.
Mr Prosser said “You were quite entitled to make any suggestions or protests at the appropriate time, you know.”
“Appropriate time?” hooted Arthur. “Appropriate time? The first I knew about it was when a workman arrived at my home yesterday. I asked him if he’d come to clean the windows and he said no, he’d come to demolish the house. He didn’t tell me straight away of course. Oh no. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver. Then he told me.”
“But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.”
“Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”
“But the plans were on display...”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.’”
They have the right to purchase your home when it comes to roads.
The admin deleted the email address of these government officials that I included in my post. I appreciate that their are privacy concerns for private citizens, however, being the official in charge of governing a group of citizens would appear to nullify that right.
The matter of one municipality using eminent domain to seize property in another municipality would involve a state law issue. You need to find out what the relevant state laws are in order to determine whether you have any realistic chance of stopping this.
Sounds like a noble, patriotic thing to do, give up your home for a needed road, doesn’t it? These corrupt municipalities have a way of doing their deeds because it benefits them personally (related to contractors, etc.) or just slip it by with no input (yeah, they probably published it, and NO one read it and they know it). The devil is always in the details and details are so darn bothersome!
What are your other neighbors affected by this saying?
When the road is completed will it go through to the freeway? Will any federal funds be used to construct the roadway? Does any of the proposed roadway go through parkland on which federal funds have been used? If yes, have all federal requirements for public notifications and hearings be met?
Have environmental impact assessments been made on the proposed roadway? Any endangered species? Any wetlands, streams, waterways to be crossed? If so, has proper documentation for government permits been submitted and approved?
Eminent domain is a proper function of government, but I am concerned about this construction being handled as you describe. It sounds like the governmental entities may be operating in the “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission” mode.
Good luck but I suspect you can bend over and kiss your home good bye. That is what eminent domain means, to use your property for a road. We had a similar situation here a few years ago. They didn’t take our home just 25 feet off the front of our property. Instead of living on a quiet dead end road we now live on a 4 lane thoroughfare and the traffic roars by here 24 hours a day. The value of our house dropped as did our taxes but they are back up now. Such is life in the big city. Be glad they are taking your house not just ruining it and letting you keep it.
I’d suggest going to an Indian reservation and buying large numbers of artifacts, busting and scraping them up to make them look ancient, and then distributing them to your neighbors. Surreptitiously, you bury these things in a scattered fashion in the affected neighborhood and in the surrounding area. You then call the leadership of the closets Indian tribe you can find and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the head of Native American Studies at the nearest and largest local university. Perhaps you can create a “sacred burial ground” situation which would delay but likely not prevent what you are facing.
Is it now?
Well it ain’t in Alabama. We here dare defend our rights and the concept of Eminent Domain doesn’t mean that government can condemn your property for a public road or for the greater common good except by due process.
Rage against the special interest tyrants. They measure the world with their pocketbooks and they are less than fully human.
Since this will be a State/city debt you can request payment in gold or silver as stipulated under the U.S. Constitution:
Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1:
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
Since the legal tender value of a 1 ozt silver eagle is $1, or a 1 ozt gold eagle is $20 then they have to pay the legal tender value.
Or you can take payment in debt currency that has no defined value and loses it’s purchasing power on a daily basis, your choice.
Sorry to hear about this. Last year the brilliant minds in charge of the small town where I grew up decided to put sewer and water down that half mile stretch of rural route where the old homestead is located and in the process cut down and chipped up my great-grandfather’s walnut trees.
Alas, construction of the new road along a boundary is a common way to divee up expenses for a project from which more than one community will derive benefit. Get a lawyer; I wouldn’t recommend trying to get all your neighbors together to jointly hire counsel. But hey, I’m not in the legal profession.
I don’t know if it will help, but I sent an email to Sean Hannity. Seems to me that he likes to defend folk’s home.
Sounds like you have even better cause what with this cabal of crooked mayors wheeling and dealing for themselves instead of their constituents. Maybe you can bring that whole thing down in the process. Collect all the info you can and when you see a lawyer ask him if that sounds like racketeering to him. RICO anyone?
Go find out just WHO owns the land where this “road” is going,,,This krap is done for personal gain most of the time
in my area,,,Follow The Money...
PS: Save anything you find on the net to your hard drive. If they get wind of growing opposition that info could become highly perishable.
What kind of help can we, as outsiders, give?