Eminent Domain is at it again
Via Tom, comes this article:
The owner of a West Valley strip shopping center has been forced to continue leasing space to Peoria Justice Court, sparking the latest in a series of Valley battles over the government’s right to take over privately owned land.
Orsett/Columbia Ltd. is awaiting a ruling by the state Court of Appeals on a Pinal County Superior Court decision in July that backed the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
In requiring the shopping center’s owners to give space to Peoria Justice Court at 75th Avenue and Cactus Road, the lower court ruled that public good overrides private property rights.
An Orsett official said the decision sets dangerous precedent.
“This means municipalities can identify a space they want and force a landlord to lease it to them,” said Mike Freret vice president of development for Orsett/Columbia Ltd. “It may mean that if the space they want already has a business owner in it, they could boot them out.”
There’s more abuse of eminent domain by local authorities listed in the article. The lesson here is never lease property to the government. Eminent domain has been abused for a long time but this case seems particularly hideous as the effort to do so is under the guise of saving the taxpayers a few bucks at the expense of someone’s property rights. But more hideous is that isn’t the reason. The real reason is so that the court won’t be inconvenienced by a move before thier permanent facilities are completed.
I hope the challenge is successful.
November 4th, 2003 at 5:08 pm
Eminent domain has been abused for as long as I can remember, and probably longer. I wouldn’t do away with it completely, but at the same time, the rules clearly need to be tightened up. A couple of good starting points might be to require that the landowner be reimbursed at least double current fair market value, and that if the land is ever sold back to private interests, the pre-annexation owner receives the proceeds from the sale.