Eminent Domain
What's The Deal?
POSTED: 5:46 p.m. CDT July 25, 2003
They can take your land if you won't sell it to them and the Alabama constitution says so!
Experts say the government is digging up eminent domain more and more to get what they want. What's the deal?
When you think of eminent domain, you may think of the government buying your property to make room for a highway.
The city of Homewood headed to court this week to try and force the sale of a 19-acre track of land owned by Samford University. The city wants to put soccer fields on the land but negotiations with the university have stalled.
Plans for some Alabaster land will likely end up in court too. A developer wants to buyout about a dozen property owners and build a strip mall near Interstate 65 and Highway 31.
"If it was something really worthwhile, I wouldn't fight one minute. But I don't think it's worthwhile," Mattie Taylor said.
Taylor owns church on the wanted land and her family lives behind it. She says city leaders are threatening to have the property condemned in court if she doesn't sell by next week.
"I don't think the city has the right to inject itself in the negotiation process," attorney Jim Pino said.
Pino is representing the Alabaster landowners. He says the city is overstepping its bounds because the Alabama constitution states private property can be taken for public use, but it shall not be taken for private use or for the use of corporations.
But state and local laws say eminent domain can prevail for economic development if the property in question is blighted, a definition that is subjective.
"I think we're traveling down a slippery slope in that area now," Pino said.
Attorney Ed Allen agrees. He helped draft recent eminent domain legislation.
"Most anything that is a positive economic force benefits the public but that doesn't mean that's a public use," Allen said.
On the other hand, Allen says Homewood's quest for a park is possibly a classic case of public use.
"It's a park. It's for the benefit of the community," Allen said. "That doesn't mean the landowner likes it but it's not the same thing as a commercial or industrial development."
The judge hearing the Homewood soccer field case requested more information before setting a court date. If he rules in favor of the government, a committee of real estate experts decides the value of the property. The losers can also appeal.(MY NOTE: The government can not appeal)
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-------------------------------------------------- Boortz hasn't told the entire story, it seems. These people are being represented by a prominent attorney. This is going to court. It apparently hasn't even been decided if the takings will be allowed. I hope this one property owner hasn't refused representation. That would be quite stupid.