Posted on 03/25/2019 2:24:58 PM PDT by BeauBo
It’s a fundamental power, laid out in the Fifth Amendment. The government can take your land to build public works... The federal government rarely loses its bid to take land. Under a special procedure, federal officials can file a Declaration of Taking that results in a court granting immediate title to the land. Bulldozers can roll the next day. The only fight, essentially, is over how much money the property owner will receive.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Why the sudden admission?
Maybe because we will soon be seeing these actions taking place, so they must posture to maintain their credibility.
With $8 billion dollars to spend on barrier, a lot of Texas landowners are going to have to move over and make room this year.
I was under the impression that there is already an easement on the border - so why would the owner receive any compensation?
I was under the impression that there is already an easement on the border - so why would the owner receive any compensation?
Buy it from the owners?
Uh, I’m sorry but did I not hear of a landowner that was willing to let his land go in favor of building a wall on it?? I don’t think I dreamed that.........
Of course some @holes will demand way more than the true value; that's why a standard has to be set. I can see the attorney ads in border states now..."Is the Federal Government trying to steal your land for the wall? We can get you more! Call today!"
Head those time consuming and costly suits off at the pass, with fair rules about payment.
AFAIK any time gov’t takes property/land from private owners under eminent domain, the owners are always compensated fair market value.
If not for the Adam Schitt and Eric SmallWood hoax, the wall could have been paid for by now.
There IS an easement-—Teddy Roosevelt acquired one in 1907-—60 foot wide.
However, an easement & OWNERSHIP of that land are 2 different thing.s
I wonder how many deeds to land on the border are accurate & are including that easement???
“I was under the impression that there is already an easement on the border - so why would the owner receive any compensation?”
The Roosevelt Reservation extends the first 60 feet inside the United States. For the more than 1,200 miles of the Texas border with Mexico however, the border itself is in the middle of the river. 60 feet will often not even reach the bank.
Additionally, we have a binding International treaty with Mexico on managing the waters of the Rio Grande. Any construction that could divert floodwaters must be approved by the International Boundary Commission - and the lower Rio Grande is subject to hurricanes, so flooding is a big issue.
The net result of that, is that the barrier must mostly run along the course of the existing flood control levees - which can be a mile or more from the American Bank of the river. A lot of the floodplain South of the levees is rich farmland or fallow wilderness, but there is a non-trivial number of private homes and some businesses that would be constrained by being caught on the wrong side of a wall. Unlike the other border States, most of the border lands in Texas are privately owned, rather than managed by the Departments of the Interior (Bureaus of Land Management or Indian Affairs) or Defense.
Those private owners need to be accommodated (e.g. with keypad operated gates) or compensated for their losses, beyond just the 150 foot wide barrier path, which the Government plans to develop and operate. I believe that the Government will offer to buy owners out completely, but they only have to sell the 150 foot wide strip that the Government will condemn under eminent domain - they can negotiate additional compensation or accommodation for the constraints placed on their other property.
The final compensation amount can sometimes take a decade to finalize in court - but the Government can take ownership and build the next day in the meantime.
These geographic and legal issues means Texas has the most difficult and expensive places to build along the whole border (no plans to build in steep mountain areas). The massive FEMA Hurricane certified concrete levees that must form the foundation of the border barrier in the lower Rio Grande Valley drives the price up near $25 million per mile (As little as $4 million per mile in the rural flat desert). Beyond being the difficult and expensive miles, they are also the most important miles, where the most illegals cross into our Country.
This year’s funding was the main battle in the war to build an effective wall. The President’s plan targets the most important miles first. The $8 billion that the President has obtained (despite the great wailing and gnashing of teeth), is enough to button up the Rio Grande Valley and the main border cities; where over 3/4 of current traffic now crosses. Everything after that great effort should be significantly easier, cheaper and faster to build.
It’s OUR border wall, you POS MSN!!!!!
Good info, thanks!
We’ll get just enough to quiet us down and vote for Trump next election. That’s how this works.
I wasn't interested in selling so I didn't pay much attention to the details but I seem to remember hearing that the state was offering 2 times the FMV.
I don't think that this is the standard practice in regular eminent domain cases but this was different in that the state was just trying to get us to leave our property and had no plans to use the land for the public good.
I realize that the Federal Government has virtually unlimited funds, but buying all of the private land along the US/Mexico boarder could probably get pretty pricey pretty fast.
The Constitution requires just compensation for takings under eminent domain - usually interpreted as what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller.
For properties of low estimated value (below $50K?), the Government does not conduct a formal appraisal, and makes an offer based on their informed estimate. The owner can accept that settlement, negotiate with the Government reps, or go to court to sue for a higher payment. For a small home where the barrier will take the back 150 feet of the yard, the home owner might be offered a few thousand dollars.
Hundreds of such cases will have to be settled in the Rio Grande Valley for the new Trump barrier. Some cases have not yet been finalized from the Bush-era barrier program that ended in 2009.
From what I have heard reported, money has been budgeted to reasonably compensate land owners this time around, more so than during the Bush-era Secure Fence Act program. Lessons have been learned.
https://www.agweb.com/article/farmer-says-hell-give-trump-an-easement-to-build-the-wall/
There is one that is willing to do so.
The gov knew how to do this in 1942—
From Wikipedia Oak Ridge TN article
Starting in October 1942, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring more than 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) in the Oak Ridge area for the United States’ Manhattan Project. Unlike the earlier land acquisitions by the Tennessee Valley Authority for Norris Dam—which were still fresh on the minds of many Anderson Countians—the Corps’ “declaration of taking” was much more swift and final. Many residents came home to find eviction notices tacked to their doors. Most were given six weeks to evacuate, although several had as little as two weeks. Some were forced out before they received compensation.
Why would the wall require more than a 30-40’ wide strip of land? No need to buy entire properties all along the border wall.
Texas is a little different and is not a part of that 60’ easement you reference.
In the end it will all be worked out.
snip
The Roosevelt Reservation is a 60-foot (18 m) strip of land on the United
States side of the United States–Mexico Border under the jurisdiction of
the United States Federal Government. It was established in a 1907 Presidential
Proclamation (35 Stat. 2136) by Theodore Roosevelt in order to keep public
lands in California, Arizona, and New Mexico “free from obstruction as a
protection against the smuggling of goods between the United States and
Mexico”.[1][2][3] Texas is not mentioned, due to the details of the
Texas annexation, where Texas retained all public lands upon annexation
and admittance as a state.[4][5] Not all land on the border with Mexico
in California, Arizona, and New Mexico is public.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Reservation
“buying all of the private land along the US/Mexico border could probably get pretty pricey”
The Government just needs a 150 foot wide strip, which adds up to about 18 acres per mile.
The 750 miles along California, Arizona and New Mexico is overwhelmingly Government owned, and the Roosevelt Reservation (first 60 feet) is already in effect.
The total plan submitted to Congress last year called for a total of 1,100 miles of barrier. All things considered, the minimum required would be about 10,000 acres, averaging a few thousand per acre - a few tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate. Significant settlement costs will also be needed to buy out landowners completely in many cases, so $100-200 million is a ballpark estimate.
Laredo is also angling to get a waterfront development project thrown in as a sweetener, so maybe another $50-100 million if they get a really sweet payoff. The 2019 appropriation included a requirement to come to agreement with about a half dozen local Governments on the barrier route, and being able to negotiate some such upgrades is likely a big reason for that provision.
In rural areas of farmland and ranches, the land is relatively inexpensive, and if good accommodation is made for water needs, local owners often welcome good barrier.
The Rio Grande Valley and the border cities - especially Laredo - is where the land acquisition is most difficult and expensive. The Trump Administration proposes to do all of that with the money it has identified for this year.
As luck would have it, the guy leading the effort happens to be a world class real estate developer, with extensive experience in eminent domain issues. We can be reasonably sure that he has required the program to shown him a realistic plan for managing the land acquisition. But the bottom line is that neither land acquisition costs, nor the legal aspects of exercising eminent domain, are showstoppers - just normal parts of Government construction projects.
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