Yearly Archives: 2010

Property is more than a piece of land for those who have worked their entire lives to make a comfortable home. What happens when the government says they need it?

Yesterday, the National Association for Home Builders together with the Wisconsin Building Association filed a brief amici curiae in support of the VFW in the City of Milwaukee Post No. 2874 Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States v. Redevelopment Agency of the City of Milwaukee, No. 09-1204 (cert. petition filed Apr. 2, 2010).

On Wednesday, April 21, one of the last remaining property owners opposing the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, Daniel Goldstein, reached a negotiated settlement with the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and project’s developer, Forest City Ratner, to leave his home.

Last month we posted “Virginia farm may be ‘most condemned property in America'” about Edd Jennings and his family’s 300 acres farm that has been condemned for easements and other public uses by state agencies and utility companies on 10 different occassions since the 1970s.

A new Petition for Writ of Certiorari has been filed with the United States Supreme Court requesting review of a Wisconsin eminent domain case, City of Milwaukee Post No. 2874 Veterans of Foreign Wars v. Redevelopment Agency, 768 N.W.2d 749 (Wis. 2009), in which the application of the “undivided fee rule” (also referred to as the “unit rule”) resulted in the award of $0 as “just compensation.” (SCOTUS Docket No 09-1204.)

On Friday, New York State Supreme Court Judge John R. LaCava issued an opinion in the eminent domain case known as In Re Matter of Village of Port Chester v. Village of Port Chester, 2010 NY Slip Op 50532(U), Supreme Court, Westchester County (Decided April 2, 2010), ordering the Village of Port Chester to pay the property owners $3,062,000.00, plus interest, for the taking of their commercial properties.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey ruled that a mural reading – “End Eminent Domain Abuse” (pictured above, image from KMOX News, St. Louis, MO) – which Jim Roos commissioned to be painted on the side of a brick apartment building owned by his housing agency is not art, violates the city’s sign code and must come down. The city’s sign ordinance requires signage to be no larger than 30 square feet in this zoning district. Mr. Roos’s anti-eminent domain mural is reported to be more than 360 square feet.

One of the great challenges in a recessionary cycle is reconciling the apparent contradiction between property values disproportionately impacted by the short-term realities of a lean marketplace and a more balanced and nuanced assessment of long-term value. In a condemnation setting, the legal, practical and logistical difficulties of assessing value in a way that is fair and reasonable becomes particularly problematic.

Last week, the Idaho Supreme Court in State v. Canyon Vista Limited Family Partnership, et al., Docket No. 34485, Opinion No. 26 (March 17, 2010) upheld a jury verdict awarding approximately $3.3 million as just compensation for property taken to widen a road in Twin Falls, ID.

Robert Thomas, OCA Hawaii Member, will be covering the oral arguments in Klumpp v. Borough of Avalon, No. A-49-09 (certification granted Nov. 10, 2009) before the New Jersey Supreme Court today beginning at 11:00 AM (EDT). The New Jersey Supreme Court will review the decision of the Appellate Division which held that the government can assert inverse condemnation in order to acquire private property without compensation.