Welcome to the Future!
Meet HB 114 (2021 | TX) which would prohibit high speed rail from receiving state agency approval (granting the power of eminent domain) OR state agency negotiation for land for the high speed rail project, until and unless the project received “all necessary federal approvals and permits”
Texas Monthly | What Was Behind Greg Abbott’s Bullet Train Flip-flop?
Where: Missouri
What: SB 1 (2020 | MO)
What protections does SB 1 afford and to whom?
Who: State Fair of Texas
Why is the State Fair of Texas correcting for property rights violations that impacted Black communities? Because the Fair takes place grounds that were built by displacing Black communities
The entity taking action: Fair Park First
What is Fair Park First doing? Developing a $58million park to give back to the community
Spectrum News 1 | Dallas Leaders Plan Update to Fix the State Fair of Texas After History of Racism
Where is this happening? Los Angeles
What is the proposal? A city council member is proposing utilizing COVI relief fund to acquire by eminent domain an apartment building for affordable housing
Is there a deadline for the city to spend the COVID funds? Yes, December 31st
Does the owner want to sell the apartment building? No
What policy argument supports this use of COVID funds? It is much more cost effective to acquire property for affordable housing than it is to build new affordable housing
A local business owner in New York opined as to how his local governmental entities used eminent domain as a weapon.
How else is eminent domain characterized by the property owner?
Commerical Observer Buffalo News | Another Voice: Stop using eminent domain as a weapon
The City of Houston is permitting restaurants and bars to utilize open spaces outside their buildings along Main.
The Local Program: More Space Main Street program would close the road to vehicles and allow bars and restaurants to create outdoor seating spaces in the street.. The pilot will continue until March 2022.
Where: North Dakota
What: A bill is bring proposed to make North Dakota the 1st state in country to allow private land owners to electronically post their land as accessible for hunters.
Why? This replaces what landowners call a costly system that requires landowners to post that their land is closed to hunters. North Dakota has a history of open lands for hunters.
Grand Forks Herald | Bill would allow North Dakota landowners to electronically post land
Urban Houston and Urban NYC look vastly different, but does that make homes inside Houston’s 610 Loop suburban? I know it when I see it is a better solution.
But, an even better solution: data
Here’s an example of how population data can define urban, suburban and exurb:
Want more? The US Census Bureau says urban is contiguous census tracts with a population density greater than 1,000 people per square mile
How do the U.S.’s 53 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas break down their population under the definitions above?
Governing | How Can We Define Suburbia? Start With the Numbers.
What’s happening in Nashville? Two new build properties are suing the city refusing to foot the bill for sidewalks in front of their properties.
What do land owners say? The city is shirking responsibility and asking private landowner to pay for public spaces, sidewalks
Streetsblog | Two Nashville Residents Ask: Should Landowners Fund Sidewalks?
What do I need to know: The just compensation isn’t a by-the-book eminent domain issue. It involves foreclosure sale that occurred in the middle of a sales transaction by the property owner.
What legal quirk then emerged: The Land Bank that swooped in to take the land transferred the property to a private owner at a fraction of its appraised value.
In Ohio, the land bank system is an exception to the ordinary tax foreclosure sale.
What would be the impact if the owner is afforded just compensation? More than 12 states have a similar system that allows the state to take a windfall from foreclosed property.
Pacific Legal Foundation | Ohio county’s illegal tax foreclosure robs property owner and taxpayers