Uh yeah it IS theft. I don’t care who takes it. Private enterprise or the government. If you can’t build your highway build it somewhere else. Private property is sacred.
“Private property is sacred.”
Sorry, but it isn’t! We love our home. Wouldn’t want to have to leave it, but there are some things that are more important to us as a society, so so long as we were properly compensated, I would have no problem with moving. But I will agree with you that the business or condemning private property for private interests is a bad thing. The problem is that local governments are now getting into the business of “redevelopment” and taking property for the benefit of their tax base ( well sort of). Here in CA, Gov. Brown ( whom I hate with a passion) has done away with “an assortment of “redevelopment agencies.” Our town is definitely upscale and has no “blight.” That did not stop the town from setting up a “redeveloment agency” which took over some of the older commercial properties with RA money, then turned it over to private developers to “improve.” At the same time, they took the properties involved off the property tax rolls for a number of years as an “inducement” to the developers. That means that they shifted the tax burden to the rest of us. Thankfully, Brown put that kind of activity out of business. There is simply no reason for government to be in the property business, particularly when they shift costs from those who should shoulder them to the citizens and do it without any votes of those affected.