Billboards and the City of Houston have a long history. Like a love affair that thrives on disagreements. The love lasts, but it is a roller coaster.
New movement in this relationship. The City & 3 billboard companies (Outfront Media, SignAd & JGI) are in talks to address what the city calls, billboard blight. The bargaining chip offered by the CIty:
- Voluntary removal of billboards- Keep 1 sign for the next 20 years, if you remove 2 signs.
Providing great material for 2015 bills in Texas, The Nebraska Supreme Court, making reference to Denbury, issued an opinion on the constitutionality of a pipeline certification. Read More: Information Intelligence The Court said we don’t like it, but that pesky super majority threshold to declare the statute unconstitutional isn’t … The landowners trying to stop Keystone XL in Nebraska were dealt a blow in the Friday, January 9th, ruling of the Nebraska Supreme Court. Landowners won a majority of the Court, but not super majority. Highlights: Private property rights advocates will be laser focused on a report by two economists that shows that taking private property for public use is not economically beneficial. The economists wrote that there is “a negative relationship between eminent domain and revenue growth.” Texas Rice Land Partners Ltd. v. the Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas has been a hot legal topic for years. The repurcussions have been: Management Districts are controlled by the cities in which they operate and by the statutes that created the districts. The dual level of oversight means that while state law may grant a management district the power of eminent domain, a city may restrict a management district’s use of eminent domain. Such is the case in El Paso. Chapter 505 of the Government Code grants the Monticello Management district the power of eminent domain. The City Council of El Paso has prohibited the… 6 years of litigation and we might see the first jury trial. Here’s what happened: This week TPPF released a private property rights paper about a pipeline company facing a judgment in excess of $1.6M against it. The judgment is unpaid and no bond is posted for appeal. It has ruffled feathers. In the paper, TPPF reminds us transmission lines are no different that pipelines in that they both are private companies that have the power of eminent domain. TPPF stresses 2 major points: Compensation of land owners is a common refrain in eminent domain debate. When property is taken by private companies, such as pipelines, the debate grows more intense. Massachusettes is considering a 12.5 percent royalty on any oil and gas transported in a pipeline through Massachusettes and ultimately sold to a foreign country. The royalty would be split amond land owners and is in addition to any compensation from taking of land through eminent domain.
Posted incompensation, legislation trend, pipelines/common carriers, private company
The City of Denton passed a proposition to ban fracking. It’s led to lawsuits to stop the implementation of the ban. New lawsuits may emerge from mineral rights owners. Mineral Rights owners could assert that the fracking ban ordinance unfairly restricts their ability to use their property. In short, that the city used a form of eminent domain to take their property and didn’t compensate the mineral rights owners for taking away their ability to extract the minerals.
Posted ininverse condemnation, land use, legal trend, legislation trend, pipelines/common carriers
Legal Trend Meets LegislativeTrend: Land Owners Challenge Constitutionality. Later Challenge Eminent Domain.
Legal Trend: NE SCT Clears Way for Pipeline. Mentions Landowners Success in Denbury.
Empirical Effect of Eminent Domain on Local Economies- Not Good
Top 2014 Texas Court Cases: Texas Rice Land Partners v. Denbury Green Pipeline
El Paso Management District Prohibited from Using Eminent Domain Authority
TX Rice Partners v. Denbury: A history lesson.
TPPF Refresher: Transmission Lines Also Carry Eminent Domain Power
Royalties to be paid to Owners of Property Taken by Eminent Domain
Denton Fracking Ban Leads to Eminent Domain Claims by Mineral Rights Owners