Welcome to the Future!
In the 1950s and 1960s, a transportation authority in California gobbled up, with compensation, homes to make room for a freeway, and maybe some rail. High hopes. Big dreams of efficient transportation were for naught.
Nothing was built. But since the mid 1900s, the state has leased the homes to residents, who now hope to buy their abode.
Here’s the math, the homes were bought for $20,000ish, market price for nearby comparable homes now is $800,000.
TPPF is hosting a policy primer this week on Forced Annexation.
This comes on the heels of San Antonio City Council voting this week to begin annexation of unincorporated areas of Bexar County. A move that TPPF called:
TPPF Study on forced annexation focuses on Houston…
Houston churches that were facing eminent domain to make way for a new Housing Authority development, have sued to stop the eminent domain based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
RFRA is usually only a hot topic when conservative activists want to strengthen it to stop the social issues they oppose.
But, the use of RFRA by the churches to stop eminent domain adds an added lawyer of constitutional protection. Now the local governmental entity will have to prove:
Asheville, NC is considering new rules for short term rentals including:
The goal of the short term rental rules:
Two 5th ward churches are in a brewing eminent domain battle over property that the Houston Housing Authority would like to develop for low income housing and a library. This story has it all- historic churches, a wheel chair bound pastor, and a city relying on recommendations from the neighborhood itself.
The churches:
The legal actions:
Officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma want to remove the statutory requirement that if landwoners at trial receive a value 10% higher than the special commissioners, then the local government has to pay the landwoner fees and expenses.
Paying attorney fees and expenses led to this comment by a Tulsa official: “That 10 percent rule is basically a pain in the neck,” Swiney said. “I think it leads to abuse. It leads to bill padding. It discourages settlement and encourages litigation.”
During the vetting process, the new Ferris City Manager was asked about his stance on high speed rail, bouyed by allusions of the use of eminent domain.
Ellis County Commissioners Court opposes the high speed rail plan, in part because of the impact on farm land and the use of eminent domain.
Sherman, the new city manager, said he will be too busy running the city to get into politics like high speed rail.
The tax assessor for Belleville, NJ lowered a property value from $528,000 to $298,900 and then the city manager exercised eminent domain against the price-reduced property.
Belleville is a special case where the tax assessor and the city manager are the same person. Conflict of Interest? A glimpse into other property value manipulations throughout the country?
Richmond, California, home to eminent domain for underwater mortgages, is also home to a new bonding mechanism to fight blight.
In 2013, Richmond created “Richmond Community Foundation” which uses this bond mechanism for blight:
Savannah Georgia is managing blight by shaming property owners on their Top 100 Worst Properties list.
The list is compiled by:
The goal of the list: to reahbilitate blighted properties.
WTOC 11 City of Savannah completes work on quarter of 100 worst properties list