Eminent Domain Abuse
Imagine if someone showed up on your doorstep and offered to buy your home. You decline his offer because you have no desire to sell. A week later, however, he returns with a declaration signed by a government official ordering you to sell your property to him at a rate determined at a court hearing — or you will be evicted.
All this simply because someone else wants to own your property.
Can’t imagine that such a thing could happen? It’s called eminent domain — the taking of private property for “public purposes,” and it’s being abused right here in central Ohio.
Eminent domain is defined in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as taking private property for public use with just compensation being paid to the landowner. Public uses have traditionally meant roads, bridges and parks, but lately eminent domain is used more often to take from one private owner and give to another.
Eminent domain has received a lot of attention in Ohio as oil and gas companies attempt to build pipelines on farmers and suburban landowner’s property.
Opponents of such plans often use the charge of “Corporate Greed.” Simply mentioning the word “pipeline” mobilizes mass letter writing campaigns, visits to city councils and meetings with state legislators. No one should be able to use government to purchase or use one’s land against his or her will — right?
Property owners across the country are fighting municipalities to keep their land from being taken against their will so that malls, factories, casinos and a host of other private businesses can replace them.
Pittsburgh business and shop owners are being threatened with an attempt by the city to raze several city blocks and build a $480 million retail/entertainment district. The existing discount drugstores, pager shops and inexpensive clothiers will be replaced by the likes of J. Crew, Virgin Records and massive theaters.
The City of Pittsburgh hopes that by demolishing the businesses that cater to low and middle income patrons and replacing them with upscale shops and restaurants, it can lure back wealthy shoppers who long ago decided to spend their money at suburban malls and eateries.
Columbus’ elected leaders and government planners share the same vision for the campus section of North High Street.
Formed by the Ohio State University in January of 1995, Campus Partners for Community Urban Development is currently trying to secure land for the University Gateway Center. Gateway will include trendy shops and restaurants designed to bring wealthy shoppers back into the university district and give the area an overall face-lift.
The fact that the land belongs to someone else is the only thing that stands in their way, and herein lies the problem: what if the owners don’t want to sell?
Most of the property owners have accepted buy-out offers from Campus Partners and have given them good reviews. A few business owners however, have decided that they do not want to sell and now face certain eviction.
How could a business owner face eviction by simply refusing to sell his or her property?
Campus Partners looked to eminent domain and the Columbus City Council to solve the problem of uncooperative business owners. Designed for building roads, bridges and other “public” uses, eminent domain is now being abused to take one’s property and give it to another.
Property owners are compensated, but at a rate determined by the court, not mutually agreed upon by the buyer and a willing seller.
Campus Partners may have a wonderful plan for the area, but forcibly taking one’s property to create a trendy new shopping district does not represent a legitimate “public use.”
