There, a major battle is under way over a massive redevelopment project that could demolish more than 60 buildings housing 100 small businesses in order to make way for an upscale retail center anchored by a Nordstrom's department store.
Of all the powers extended to government, one of the most fundamental—and controversial—is the power to appropriate private property that is needed for some public purpose. Indeed, the framers of the U.S. Constitution regarded the issue a big enough deal back in 1787 to warrant its own amendment. The Fifth Amendment says, in effect, that private property cannot be taken without due process and without "just compensation."
Traditionally in the U.S., jurisdictions have used their eminent domain powers for projects with a clear public purpose, for road, school, and utility construction, for example. The federal government has even been known on rare occasions to take land for historical and cultural reasons. In a widely publicized recent case, the Interior Department used eminent domain powers to seize and raze a privately owned observation tower that had loomed over the Gettysburg battlefield for decades.
In its original use in England, eminent domain referred to Parliament's right to take property with or without compensation. In the U.S., the term refers to the process by which a government acquires land from private owners who may not want to sell. In virtually all cases, municipal powers to take private property derive from a state urban redevelopment law and are carried out by an urban redevelopment authority.
--Planning magazine--American Planning Association
The author of the article is Jonathan Walters, a senior correspondent for Governing magazine.The full text of the article is at http://www.planning.org/pubs/oct00.htmContact information: Ruth Knack, 312-786-6369, or [email protected]
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