Eminent Domain

[mitchthephoneman]

There is a pizza man in Scranton, PA who has his family run business for over 40 years, well known in the town and everybody eats there......WELL!!!! the goberment stepped in and wants his property for redevlopment.....they are offering him real estate value only.....

He has now had to hire a lawyer and file suite against the goberment.....

I think worrying about Homeland Security and Terrorism is taking a back burning to this very important issue......

PUT your self in this guys place, you got a nice house with a beautiful deck and pool and one day you get a certified letter in the mail and its from the goberment stating they want your property for redevelopment.....they value they give you is about 75 percent its real worth.....

Boy does this suck the big one.......:tazerblas :tazerblas

 

[caudio51]

I've never been a big fan of eminent domain.

 

[Greg]

Some sports franchises have used this precedent to clear out space for their new stadiums/arenas. I'm sure many of the fans don't even realize that the former tenants have been displaced against their will.

To clear out room for DC's new baseball stadium, more than several gay bars had to be torn down. The guy who owned the bars presented his plan for the use of the space to the DC council, in what he termed, a "gay themed" amusement area (NTTAWWT).

They chose to build the baseball stadium instead.

 

[Jwrussell]

Emminent Domain is crap with the recent ruling. There is a time for E.D. and alot of what you see as E.D. is bullshit. I'd need more info to truly decide if this was BS or not.

What's the area surrounding him like? What's the redevelopement? Either way what they are offering is crap.

 

[sleepydoc]

I can't help but believe that the Supreme Court will revisit E.D. again in the near future.

Rulings like that that seem to be completely nonsensical and grossly opposite to public opinion seem to quietly get corrected or tweaked.

 

[Terrasco]

We have a city ordinance banning the use of imminent domain for economic developement but we have not been successful in getting a state law.

 

[Fox]

Eminent Domain is now the preferred method for rich developers and local political jurisdictions to steal your property. There is no nice way to put this and the SCOTUS just acquiesced with their recent ruling. I just saw this happen locally under the guise of "redevelopment". However, the real issue is greed. It turns out that the city will receive a HUGE increase in property and BO taxes, thereby increasing the money available to the politician's. The previous "tenants" did not bring in nearly as much money to the local coffers.

I think you will start to see even greater abuses of this process in the near future. All it takes is a rich developer to convince the politicans that the new tax base will fulfill all of their political ambitions and you have a call for Eminent Domain.

 

[Headbanger]

IS this a business or personal residence or both in one place? You started as pizza joint and ended as residence. If zoned as commrcial but he lives in part of it, the gober... will base value off that zoned for. Are you are assuming getting 75% of value or is this fact, or a WAG? A lot of real estate markets have seen a steep decline in the last 6-12 months anyway. Is there no other place in town for the pizza joint?

 

[Jwrussell]

See, in MHO the local municipality should work with the Pizza Place owner to relocate him. Give him the choice, R.E. Value of the location in cash, or we move you to a mutually agreeable new place of business. There's nowhere near enough emphasis put on making sure the resident/business owner is correctly and fairly remunerated for their property.

 

[michaelbrehm]

If he bought the place and does not want to sell it he should not be forced to do so.
But that is just my opinion.
I am still a little peaved that they used the threat of Eminent Domain to move a business that had been in the same downtown Indianapolis location for 60+ years. Just to build parking space for the Colts new stadium using MY money and raising taxes to boot. From what I understand the city and business did finally agree to a "land swap" so that the actual building could stay in place and the city could build their parking garage.

 

[DocLogic77]

It's so odd because I had a dream about this particular subject last night.

 

[Greg]

From what I understand the city and business did finally agree to a "land swap" so that the actual building could stay in place and the city could build their parking garage.

So, would you have boycotted the Colts?? It's not just the "city".

 

[Jwrussell]

While I understand where you are coming from Michael, there are SOME, certain instances where Eminent Domain does need to be used. As stated earlier though, I believe it's used much more than it should be.

 

[mitchthephoneman]

This story was on Hannity & Combs, last night...I forgot what cable channel.......

Its an established business, zoned business from what I could see of the building.....

But does it matter.......the real issue is........taking your property for redevlopment uses......

 

[ATCDub]

This past year Georgia passed a state law that limits E.D. for development purposes. Fair market value is a must for any type of e.d. but some developments were "Wal-Mart" strip malls taking over "mom & pops". As with any Goober-ment venture, it's not what you know; it's who you blow.

 

[Jwrussell]

Sorry Michael, but there just isn't enough information. "Redvelopment" is just too broad a term. I know you probably disagree, but there are times when taking the property is the right thing to do.

Thankfully Florida has pretty much put it's foot down on this kind of thing.

 

[cvm4]

It depends on what the property looks like around the pizza joint. It might be in need of redevelopment??? Anyway, for the most part I'm against Eminent domain.

 

[derek]

I'm not a fan of this at all. I live in CT, where there has been an on going battle over this now for years in New London. The city wanted to take house/land for Commercial use. It took several year, but the city got what it wanted in Supreme court. What ever happend to that saying "for the people".

Even before that battle, they took a house/land belonging to a life long resident of Bristol(where I live). It was a 3 year battle. They wanted it for you guessed it commercial use. After they took this ladies house, the company decided to move to another town and no longer needed that land. So every morning I drive by a pile of rubble because out city took a house prior to the commercial investor deciding where they want to go.

However, in both case the owners were offered well over the value of thier homes/land. Up to 3 to 5 times the value. Not sure if they would ever replace the memories that were made in those houses tho.

 

[cvm4]

Shit memories are all in the mind, give me 3-5 times the value of my house and I'm out of there! :rofl:

 

[Jwrussell]

However, in both case the owners were offered well over the value of thier homes/land. Up to 3 to 5 times the value. Not sure if they would ever replace the memories that were made in those houses tho.

Again, impossible to really say unless you know ALL the details, but assuming the area was actually in need of a boost, assuming there actually was "blight", the homeowners were made fair offers. I'd have to side with E.D. on that one...again, making the above assumptions. Now, if there was nothing wrong with the area and they just wanted to put something commercial where the residences were because of added tax revenue or some such B.S., then that's a different animal all together.