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Background: A local Wisconsin Community Development Authority is taking action to declare maintained properties blighted
What statutory language provides for development within an area under blight standards:
“an area which is predominantly open, and which because of obsolete planning, diversity of ownership, deterioration of structures or of site improvements or otherwise substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of the community.”
Community Repsonse: Organized the Better Mount…
State: Wisconsin
Development Project: FoxConn Manufacturing Plant
What’s happened to the property in the FoxConn path?
4 Requirements for Blight Designation in Wisconsin
Colorado Courts are grappling with “eminent domain creep.”
What’s eminent domain creep? Extending eminent domain through judicial opinion.
What’s the issue in Colorado? City A wants to buy land outside its city limits for open space and then annex the land into City A and offer developers tax incentives. City B opposes the land transaction and wants to use eminent domain to take the land for open space.
The North Jersey editorial board opposed the taking of private property by a for-profit developer to build between 22 and 29 low- to moderate-income apartments in a mixed use retail and market rate housing development.
The opposition:
North Jersey | Editorial: In Emerson, eminent domain or land grab?
A Louisiana Court ruled that Public Records Laws Not Applicable To Private Pipeline Company.
Arguments for Open Records: If the entity performs a governmental role, like taking property, it should be subject to open records
The Court’s response— there is no basis for applying open records requirements in this matter.
Red River Radio | Judge Rules Public Records Laws Not Applicable To Private Pipeline Company
Rhode Island wants to build a new PawSox stadium.
To get to a new stadium, legislators filed S-0990 & S-0989, that included funding requirements, new eminent domain provisions, and reworking the definition of blight.
Public input on the eminent domain provisions & transparency concerns raised by the State Republican Chair, led to the removal of new eminent domain and blight provisions.
RINPR | Revised PawSox Bill Steers More Revenue To Pawtucket; Outlook In RI House Uncertain
Wilmington, DE Mayor Mike Purzcki proposed to eliminate blight by:
The opposition killed it by:
What solution did opponents want? Protections in ordinance that limit the ability to take owner occuppied homes and to prohibit takings for minor violations.
The city: Charlestown Indiana
The code enforcement fines: Code enforcement violations began in the summer of 2016, after city council adopted fines that cannot be waived
The alleged goal of city leaders: revitalization
The court’s response to the code fines:
First comes statewide tree ordinances and then come broad private property rights requirements in local governmental entity development plans.
Florida’s HB 207 (2017) would require:
Property developers in Los Angeles California are charged a fee that subsidizes affordable housing.
How did this end up in court? Developers argued that the fees are tantamount to a taking of private property “for public use without just compensation.”
What happened in court? The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, October 30, 2017, refused an appeal that upheld the affordable housing fee.
California State Courts found that the developer fees are: a reasonable regulation of development.