Category Archives: local government trend

Local TREND. Stadium Opposition and Eminent Domain. 3 Opposition Arguments.

The stadium: FC Cincinnati

The opposition Op-Ed author: A former Cincinnati mayor and founder and CEO of the Center for Closing the Health Gap

The eminent domain problem:

  • History is a problem. 
    •  In the 1950s 26,000, mostly minority residents, were displaced from eminent domain for an redevelopment project
    • When I-75 was expanded, the same displacement of minority residents occurred
  • Relocation never occured. The 1950s eminent domain use did not bring relocation to fruition
  • There was no…

Local TREND. 3 Reasons a City Chopped its Short Term Rental Ordinance.

The City: Cochella

The short term rental ordinance provisions that were chopped: inspections and a $60 licensing fee

The reasons for eliminating inspections and fees:

  • The economic impact for the Cochella festival
  • entrance barriers may stifle economic development and opportunities for city tourism revenue
  • Cochella retained the need for property owners to obtain a business license for $100

Desert Sun | Coachella cuts short-term rental inspections and license fee days before festival

Blight Trend. Is negotiation required first? Blight Statute. Development. Property Rights Supporters. The Wood Violet State.

State: Wisconsin

Development Project: FoxConn Manufacturing Plant

What’s happened to the property in the FoxConn path?

  • most property owners have not entered into negotiations
  • blight designations were prescribed by the Mount Pleasant Community Development Authority

4 Requirements  for Blight Designation in Wisconsin

  • property cannot be owner occuppied
  • property cannot be occuppied by the owner spouse
  • property cannot be occuppied by an individual related to the owner by blood, marriage, or…

Property Rights TREND. Property Rights in Taxi Licenses. Local Trend begets Legal Trend Begets Lege Trend.

Local Trend: Local Ride Share Ordinances

Legal Trend: In San Francisco, Financial Institutions are suing over the loan value of the city’s $250,000 taxi medallions which local ride share ordinances diminished the value of the medallions

Lege Trend: Leveling the playing field so that ride share and taxis are regulated equally

ABC 7 San Francisco | Credit union suing San Francisco over ‘worthless’ taxi medallions

Legal Trend. Bluebonnet State Attorney General Intervenes in Local Short Term Rental lawsuit

Austin’s short term rental ordinance is being litigated. Texas Attorney General Paxton rational for getting involved in the lawsuit:

  • Austin’s ordinance is ” “a gift to the hotel industry or Austin residents who seek reduced home prices.”
  • He holds up Texans whose relatives housed troops during times of war to support a statewide histroy of short term rentals
  • “By taking away its citizens’ property right to lease their homes as they see fit, the city has violated their constitutional rights,

Tex…

Lege Trend. State Equal Control Over All Local Historic Property. 3 Points from the bill.

Tennessee’s bill that would make the State ‘s Historical Commission partial control over all historic property under control of local governments:  HB 2146

Concern of opponents:

  •  HB 2146 would also give the TN Historical Commission new eminent domain authority
  • The bill allows the stsate commission to threaten removal of officve for any local official that ignoed a state histroical commission decision

Supporters of the bill say:

  • the bill is necessary because Memphis tried to remove two…

Eminent Domain Creep. Can eminent domain seized land then be annexed?

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.

Denver Post | Eminent domain creep strikes again

Local TREND. 3 Arguments for Less Regulation of local food trucks. Food Trucks = Private Property Rights?

Empower Texas is arguing for statewide regulations for food trucks because:

  • Houston & Austin regulations, the 6th and 7th worst cities respectively, overburden these small businesses
    • Houston should eliminate “on-site bathrooms for food trucks on private property and the “electronic monitoring fee.”
  • It relies on this report from the US Chamber of Commerce that says food trucks have an average of ” 45 separate government procedures over 37 days and pay over $28,000 in fees for permits,…

Legal TREND. Can a foreign entity have the power of eminent domain?

A fedceral appeals court will rule whether the power of eminent domain for a pipeline in Ohio. 

What do I need to know?

  • Nexus is a partnership that is partly foreign owned
  • While awaiting a court ruling, a local govenrment in the project’s path, approved a settlement on city lands, but the city legal counsel says the agreement is not elegibile for approval on a ballot
  • The city’s agreement does not impact the landowner lawsuit over the question of eminent domain authority

Akron Beacon Journal…

Anatomy of a Property Rights Group Opposition to Local Land Use. 5 New Preemption Bills + 3 Inverse Condemnation Compensation Standards

Where: La Plata County Colorado

The land use resrictions the La Plata Liberty Coalition Opposes:

  • County regulation of building height
  • County regulation of exterior facade colors
  • County regulations of screening structures and minimizing impacts on views
  • County regulations providing visual breaks to any structures’ facade
  • County regulations to avoid monotonous roof planes

3 County regulation topics that require just compensation:

  • requiring “open vistas”
  • preserving “scenic corridors”
  • “aest…