Oglethorpe County has given the owners of 79 acres on Dawson Road until June 9 to accept its offer to buy the land before it starts condemnation proceedings for the property needed to expand the Athens-Clarke Landfill.

Oglethorpe County officials agreed in March to pay landowner Anne Steiner $682,000 for the property, but the two parties have not signed an agreement.

The family has until June 9 to accept the offer or the government, which shares the landfill with Clarke County, will use eminent domain to seize the property, said Robert Johnson, chairman of the Oglethorpe County Commission.

"Hopefully, the land (deal) can be negotiated before then," Johnson said.

Kim Steiner, the daughter-in-law of land owner Anne Steiner, said in March that the family wasn't willing to sell the land but would have an independent appraiser determine its value. That appraisal was supposed to be completed by May 5, according to Johnson, but commissioners have not seen the report.

The landfill, which straddles the Clarke-Oglethorpe county line, has three to five years of space left, and the expansion would add about 25 to 30 years to its life, Johnson said.

Athens-Clarke County owns the landfill, but Oglethorpe County receives 10 percent of the tipping fees that haulers pay when they bring trash to the dump.

The state Environmental Protection Division still must approve a permit before the expansion.
In the meantime, local environmental activists have submitted petitions to Athens-Clarke and Oglethorpe county officials, asking them to reconsider their January votes to expand the site.
The decisions violate the 1992 agreement made between the two counties to close the site, rather than expand it, once it reached capacity.

"Such blatant disregard to uphold government integrity is an affront to the democratic process and constitutional protection of human rights," said Jill McElheney, an environmental activist.
State law says the agreement is not enforceable since commissions are prohibited from binding another, future commission made up of different members.

The agreement was based on the assumption that a regional landfill would be built, but that effort failed in 1998 after an outcry from residents living near 25 proposed sites. Athens-Clarke commissioners can't vote to reconsider the earlier decision since those votes only can be made in meetings that immediately follow the initial vote and before the adoption of the minutes, said Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Andy Herod.

People near landfills often have a difficult challenge when the governmental agency decides to expand the facility by involuntary (condemnation) purchase. What is seen is often much less than what is there!

The Jacksonville Port Authority probably will pass on acquiring 70 acres at the north end of Talleyrand Avenue by eminent domain, deterred by the $67.4 million price.

Having won a court ruling in December 2006 that the authority could take the property, it had not committed to doing so until the price was settled. Now it knows that price is more than four times what the authority offered before filing for condemnation.

A jury decided May 2 the authority would have to pay $67.4 million to fully compensate Keystone Coal Co. for its industrial riverfront property. The verdict followed a two-week valuation trial that was the culmination of a two-and-a-half-year process the authority had followed to acquire the land for expansion.

"It would be hard to justify purchasing the property for that amount," Authority Executive Director Rick Ferrin said. "I don't know of any maritime use that would generate a return on investment that would justify such a price."

This is eminent domain at its worst. The government attempts to take from one owner simply to transfer to a preferred developer from China! Only in America could a state rule allow dismissal of the taking because it was more than the buyer wanted to pay!

The Monroe County Commission is attempting to obtain ownership of a cemetery, using its powers of eminent domain, because the private owner allegedly has “desecrated the burial ground” by removing tombstones and allowing “raw sewage” to run over graves.

The lawsuit also stated the commission does not intend to “create new sites for burials, but only to prevent the further violations of existing graves.”

This is a taking for all the good reasons. There is no difference between an eminent domain proceeding for a disgustingly maintained cemetery and a blighted building. Hopefully, there is a statutory delegation allowing taking of the property.

The lighting rod issue of eminent domain appears to be escalating around a Music Row property owned by Joy Ford, owner of Country International Records.

Scott Bullock, the attorney who argued the landmark eminent domain case, Kelo v. New London, at the U.S. Supreme Court, will be in Nashville tomorrow to meet with Ford and the media.

At issue is the construction of a $100 million mixed-used office and hotel project by The Lionstone Group, a Houston-based developer. Recently the developers indicated they are ready to move forward with construction, even though Ford's property is located inside the footprint for the project.
In recent weeks, the city has signaled a willingness to get involved because the property is located in one of the city's urban redevelopment districts.

Realistically, this is a prime example of a public agency taking for essentially a private use. Let the market determine the value of the property!

Surely, Northern Kentucky University land-grabbers don’t think they can use eminent domain to seize private property for a new athletic complex. Or do they?

…If these property owners in Northern Kentucky are smart, they’ll hire a sharp lawyer. If their elected officials are smart, they’ll send President V. this message: Let property owners determine “just compensation.” Then let N.K.U. pay up — or shut up -— about eminent domain.

The real issue here is whether the Kentucky State Constitution empowers Universities with the authority to take land. If so, uses not purely educational are indeed part of the parameters of the U activities.

We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.” - Ambrose Bierce

Are you sick and tired of being at the mercy of the grasping plutocrats who run Big Oil? Gasoline is now selling at $3.50 a gallon, as the price of a barrel of oil nears $120, with no end in sight to further increases. Meanwhile, the American economy is sinking faster than the Titanic. The dollar, too, is in sharp decline. Mortgage foreclosures are at depression era highs. Over three million middle class jobs have been exported in recent years. The Wall Street wise guys are in near-panic mode. The Fed, after 19 years of Alan Greenspan’s gross ineptness, is held in deep contempt. Yet, Big Oil keeps sucking off the American consumer, with a devil-be-damned attitude, while acting like a law unto itself… read more

Now if we can only nationalize everything, avoid all competition, then have nothing left for us to work for. Nationalization of the oil companies (a slight expense) would assure us of no development or improvements in the oil distribution system, and likely delay our attempts to look to alternative fuel.

Speedway is a step closer to making big changes near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway despite the efforts of some residents to derail the project.

Some people are upset that the Speed Zone development plan would force them off their properties.

"The unfortunate thing is that the plan that they have put together basically is a steamroller," said Danny Williams, owner of Pit Stop Liquor.
Supporters of Speed Zone said it would make the area around the speedway a more desirable destination.

The commission will get appraisals on properties and begin negotiations with owners. If needed, officials said the town can use eminent domain to take the properties.

-Owners have built at section lines (mile roads) fully expecting a ninety degree\right angle at their property corner. Roundabouts give the historical expectation no respect. Owners get hurt, and their only recourse is Just Compensation because roundabouts are considered a public use.

Up to $55 million into the pockets of developers, due to McDowell Sonoran Preserve eminent domain actions gone wrong.   

-Scottsdale has actively sought eminent domain as a tool of “development” and to aesthetically improve the community. The article places governments on notice that they should be acquiring by condemnation only where there is no other choice and the need is truly mandatory.

The City of Springfield has the right use eminent domain to acquire Robinson Insulation, Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Carey ruled Friday, March 28.

In his ruling, Carey assigned April 28 for a jury trial to determine the amount of compensation the Robinsons will receive for the property located on Baltimore Place, and Cliff, Plum and Cedar streets.
.
-There is always a challenge in the determination of what is a public use. Hospitals have frequently been non-profit or publicly owned. Therefore, when a taking for a hospital expansion is considered a public use it should not be considered a surprising result.

The Wayne County Airport Authority board delayed a vote Thursday on a controversial $3.6 billion, 20-year master improvement plan for Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Eminent domain would likely be required to complete the expansion. About 800 residences would need to be demolished, including apartment buildings and single-family homes, to make way for the runway.

-The meaning of the delay and uncertainty will only create a blighting influence, both emotionally and physically, to the areas businesses and residents. It will be tough to transact business or sell a business or a residential parcel when one knows there is a condemnation just down the road.

The state hopes to raise the bypass over McGalliard Road, building entrance and exit ramps, according to INDOT spokesman Harry Maginity.

In an unrelated development, INDOT also announced it would resume plans to build an overpass that would carry Centennial Avenue over the bypass. Centennial's intersection with the bypass was the site of a fatal accident in 2007, two fatal accidents in 2002 and several other accidents in recent years that left motorists with serious injuries.

Currently, the McGalliard-Bypass intersection is serviced by a four-way traffic signal.
INDOT spokesman Harry Maginity said the proposed interchange would be safer and better suited to the original purpose of having a bypass.

To complete such a project, the state would have to acquire additional right-of-way, displacing some property holders in the area, which includes several businesses.

Construction at McGalliard Road would begin in 2010 and cost around $22 million, according to the INDOT Web site.

-As States sell off infrastructure, from water works to toll roads, they now have funds to initiate other transportation improvements from other than road taxes.

Hanging in the Sarasota conference room of law firm Brigham Moore is an earth-tone print of six Plains Indians seated and standing around a table with a parchment copy of the U.S. Bill of Rights in the background.

Moore, part Cherokee himself, has dedicated his life to helping protect Florida residents against similar takings. Along the way, he has helped to build his firm into the largest eminent domain practice in the state, with 19 attorneys in five offices…

-Bill Moore has been among the outstanding advocates in protecting owners in eminent domain. His passionate and rational demeanour along with a sense of fairness has offered protection to thousands of Florida owners seeking redress in their constitutional right to be treated fairly.

New power line construction is more likely in the Mid-Atlantic States and the Southwest after the government on Thursday said it was pushing ahead with a plan to expand and modernize the electric grid in those areas.

-The US government now views electric capacity as a federal rather than State issue. As such, it is strenuously pursuing a course of developing major corridors for future utility utilization of gas and electric transmission lines.

Anacostia is getting a long-desired makeover, courtesy of a familiar name.
George Curtis III, whose family's furniture company built the 19-foot high chair at V Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, is teaming with D.C.'s Four Points LLC on a planned 1.5 million square feet of new development in the heart of Anacostia's blighted business district.

The plans include 855,000 square feet of offices, 500 residential units, 165,000 square feet of retail, an eight- to 10-screen movie theater and a grocery store.

Developers and community leaders say the project, with construction possibly beginning in early 2009, could transform Anacostia's main corridor into a vibrant retail and business center.
D.C. estimates the property's value at its best use to be about $33.8 million. Four Points plans to seek greater zoning flexibility.

Curtis will sell the land to Four Points but retain a stake in the project, capping his family's 80 years of involvement in the neighborhood.

-One has to hope the area is truly blighted, and can only be rehabilitated through governmental involvement. If so, the project intended to clean the area makes sense. However, one wonders if there is a private profit motive leading the way. I hope that the individual owners will be protected.

-An Opinion and Press Release, found under the MPSC filing, rejected the Hartland Township and owners’ challenge to the project. This is the final part of the proceeding with offers and the filing of the condemnation complaints for major transmission lines, which will destroy the aesthetic attractiveness to a number of communities in Livingston and Oakland Counties.

The South Dakota Senate has approved a measure intended to speed up state hearings on the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's application to acquire land by condemnation for its $6 billion expansion project.

The state Transportation Commission has sought to hold a hearing on DM&E's application for authority to use eminent domain, but that hearing has been delayed after some hearing examiners were removed by both sides. Another delay was caused by a court order that required the commission to pass new rules for handling such cases.

-This article describes the issues in the DM&E Railroad acquisition process.

The issues of equal protection, state's rights, interstate commerce and the state's interest in protecting individual rights of its owners all provide a conflict, which has created torturous litigation and a hostile community in a question over what controls the state has on a transportation process within a state.

Neither side has been willing to budge when it comes to the area around Hazel Street and YSU, and that's why the courts are now getting involved.
Last Friday, the city filed a petition against Joseph Grenga, the owner of Grenga Machine and Welding Company on Rayen Avenue. The city wants to demolish that property to extend Hazel Street from downtown to the YSU campus. They've offered to buy the property from Mr. Grenga before, but his response is still clearly plastered on the walls of his business.
So, city leaders say they're following the path laid out by the law to try and force Grenga's hand. "Anytime you have development, not everyone is going to be in agreement with that development. But at the end of the day, I think this project is going to be a significant boost to many many people and many, many businesses in cleaning up that corridor", explains Mayor Jay Williams.
Along with the petition, the City put two hundred and five thousand dollars it offered to Grenga into an escrow account, and attached a city council resolution and ordinance in support of the acquisition.

-It is always hard to stop a road take, bordering on the impossible, because roads are public uses. Only in the very rarest of factual situations can one stop the taking of their property for a road.

MICHIGAN CITY - An obstacle in the city's plans to redevelop the North End could become moot soon after a lawsuit was filed to condemn two properties near Michigan Boulevard and Eighth Street.

If condemnation is granted, an appraiser will settle on values for both properties and offer that amount to the owners. If the owners object to the price, the city will issue a deed and take the properties, but will still debate price with the owners.

-In reading the article and the claim of a “$1” value, one has to wonder whether the community fully understands the choices an owner has even with contaminated property. This is a court filing which was “rushed to judgment,” by the writer of the article, premised on comments of the community. Without question, the writer was not fairly notified of the owners' rights in this particular factual setting.