Environment Committee Report for the November Voter
Eminent Domain, a Pennsylvania Statute (Title 26) is currently being studied by members of the Environment Committee. This is a powerful tool for local governments to use to protect open space and to plan economic development.
Eminent Domain is defined in Black’s Law Dictionary as:
The power to take private property for public use by the state, municipalities and private persons or corporations authorized to exercise functions of public character.
In the United States, the power of eminent domain is founded in both the federal (Fifth Amendment) and state governments. The Constitution limits the power to taking for public purpose and prohibits the exercise of the power of eminent domain without just compensation to the owners of the property which is taken. The process of exercising the power of eminent domain is commonly referred to as “condemnation”, or, “expropriation”.
A 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2005 Kelo/New London (CT) decision had a huge effect on property ownership rights and economic development pressures.
The Court ruled that local government may seize people’s homes and businesses even against their will—for private economic development. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court’s majority: “The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including – but by no means limited to – new jobs and increased tax revenue.”
Dissenting Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote: “Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.”
(Joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Justices Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas)
The Environment Committee will be monitoring the use of eminent domain by local governments in Chester County and the effects on citizens and businesses in their communities.
For more information about the Environment Committee or the Healthy Frog web site, please call Alma Forsyth, 610- 388-1361. The Healthy Frog website address is: www.healthyfrog.org.
Alma Forsyth
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