Local Issues and Governments

Re: 2011 Senate Bill 5078 (Concerning a municipality’s right to condemn real property due to a threat to public health, safety, or welfare)

M_DragonKnight — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:20:36 GMT

Hopefully this bill will help stem emminent domain that municipalities use when they want property for a project. It has always irked me that no matter how faithfully you pay your property taxes and how much your property is worth, that the state/county/city can come tand take it if they want to use it, for pennies on the dollar.

Re: 2011 Senate Bill 5078 (Concerning a municipality’s right to condemn real property due to a threat to public health, safety, or welfare)

Unclemy — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:21:44 GMT

Senator Shin etal:

Condemnation because of blight becomes a real "hot button" issue. Many other state legislatures are dealing with the same problem. I notice in your bill, that little is said about "compensation" other than the owner of a blighted property does not get an increased compensation price if they improve the property and it is taken by condemnation. However, no where does this bill even mention a property owner being offered a "fair market value" for their property. Just as with eminent domain, the bill should also protect a property owners rights of reasonable re-imbursement, even for "blighted" property. Also, the timeline for condemnation is not clearly stated. The State of Texas also included a provision that if a property was not used for a public service after 10 years that it reverted back to it's previous owner. This might have helped property owners along the defunct monorail project and also the Bremerton Project of a few years ago. In the Bremerton Project, a widow was a hold-out and her property finally condemned. The property was taken over by an auto dealership which closed it's doors a few years later. Despite a properties blightedness, for whatever reason the property owners deserve as much protection, under the law, as a valuable taking.

2011 Senate Bill 5078 (Concerning a municipality’s right to condemn real property due to a threat to public health, safety, or welfare)

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2001 05:00:00 GMT

Introduced in the Senate on January 13, 2011

Click here to view bill details.