What are your feelings about eminent domain?  

oh how i know that story all to well! doesnt it just make you furious? a restaurant in town, been in business since 1954 has moved 4 or 5 times now, always because of eminent domain. he ended up right back in the exact area that the business originated! they had to build a new building with each move and that cost them some bucks! he got fed up with being screwed by eminent domain, ran for mayor on the platform that he would not use eminent domain and won! thats how we won that battle but prior to winning, we held meetings every weekend for months on end and got anti-eminent domain groups to come and talk with us, etc. we'd had quite a turn out as i'd sent an anonymous letter to other people in the town and told them (the truth) that they were next if we didnt stop the eminent domain takeover on my side of town. ewww, i got alot of people all fired up over my letter! i'd seen the plans that the previous evil snake of a mayor had. my house was to torn down and if the gas station didnt need my property, they would sell my property to someone to build an office building! thats what they do, 'steal' more ground than they need then sell it off to someone to recoup some of their money back. the gas station that does that is QT and if you ever notice, you'll always see some oil changing place or storage place next to them (QT). oh they can be devious b*stards too, take what we offer or we'll TAKE IT. OH NO THEY WONT, not if i/we can help it!

i lost part of my back yard with a creek on it back in 1997 to eminent domain so they could build a levee. i ended up taking them to court 5 years later (they kept postponing it for some reason) and had a jury trial. they only awareded me $20,000 for what appraised at $40,000 by at least i got something for it, a pitiful amount but it beat 'nothing'. the lawyer didnt get paid until we got paid so there was no 'up front' money for him which was good, cause we would not have been able to afford him.

the whole ordeal was really insulting in the past but i'm prepared this time. if anyone shows up at my door and wants to force me out or offer me an insulting price, i have my shotgun sitting right inside the door. its not loaded but they wont know that. they'll offer me what its really worth, my price, not theirs or else i reach around the corner and grab the gun! they messed with me in the past, i wont let them get away with it the next time, thats for damn sure!

that's the thing that really gets me-the reselling of "surplus" if they don't use it.the original owner should have first chance to be restored to that land.

speaking of which-there's a fight on right now here with dept of navy vs.narragansett tribe
navy doesn't need this parcel anymore,and the narragansetts asked for it.
so of course now they're changing their mind,because it's waterfront property.i hope they get it because the last thing we need is more unsupportable hotels.

i agree, the previous owner should be offered the property back but in most cases, say its someones residence. once eminent domain 'takes it', chances are the home is destroyed in the process for future plans that sometimes fall through the cracks. i know that if they ever do get my property for some reason and they tear my house down, there would be no way that i would want the property back. the memories of what used to be, where the house stood, where my flower beds were all at, and seeing it all destroyed, it would be too much for me to handle. my situation may be different from others though. my house is 109 years old and my family has lived here since day 1. i'm 4th generation to live here so the sentimental value would be gone, plus to rebuild exactly what i have now wouldnt be the same. for whatever reason i leave here, sell to get away from the b.s. or eminent domain takes it, i will never step foot in this town again, ever. i would hate to see how the historic area had been destroyed for new shiny building.

so the navy is playing games with a parcel of ground now? go figure. when no one expresses interest in it, they would no doubt give it away but since the narragansett tribe wants it, now it becomes desirable and they'll hang a price tag on it. thats being downright ignorant of the navy. i think they should give it back to the narragansett's so that they could do something constructive with it rather than to the highest bidder to build hotels, motels, crap that really isnt necessary or needed. i tell ya, this greed that people have when it comes to property is getting so way out of hand!

exactly.especially after what you have to pay for a house nowadays.

Eminent domain to me is a law that is akin to communism.

It has been abused in many cases.

From what I have read in a google search, the law has been on the books a long time, and is based on the 5th ammendment of our constitution.

oh, they dont care about the older neighborhoods nor do they care that if they boot you out and you're retired or elderly, if you have to go back into house payments or a house so much more 'less' than what they took, well, thats not their problem. its all corporate greed /private gain and to hell with you, the little guy.

eminent domain has been on the books for a very long time, thats true BUT in the beginning it was for valid reasons. today its to get people out of the way so that major corporations can take a stand in a community with little regard for the people they kicked out. its being abused now far too much than the original reason allowed it to be used for.

it was one hellacious fight, trust me on that one. oh they did get all their experts to come into the town and say how much better the town would be with them in it. now, here's what happened on that. QT QUIETLY AND SECRETLY worked with the previous mayor and the city attorney for 7 months, setting up all the plans then they were going to dump that info on us, giving us no time to fight it. no one can tell me that 'hush money' was not given to the previous mayor and attorney to keep them quiet until the time was right to let the public know. thats when we propert owners got together almost immediately and started having meetings. we gave them 9 kinds of hell over it and didnt let up until we got a new mayor who said he would not allow it to be used. thank God he won, otherwise i'd be a gas station or an office building now. what i think is totally unfair is the fact that they can offer you as little as 25 cents on the dollar of what your property is worth! i cant buy another house at that buyout offer if they would have contacted me directly. now i did find out that since the house has been in the family for over 30 years i think it is, they would have to offer me 25% more on top of their buyout price offer. honestly, i think they were waiting to get to me till the end when they thought i would possible 'fold' to their offer. *fat chance of that ever happening*

that is terrible what the water company has done to you and the county! oh you know that they have bigger plans down the road which will effect everyone's lives, property, etc. brace yourself, they probably will charge you out the nose for water. they will have you right where they want you with no remorse. b*stards!!!

same situation in a town close to me. 2 elderly sisters were the only ones to hold out on a buyout for their property in a residential area. so what does the grocery store do? they built their store and built their parking lot all around the sisters house!!!!!! the store was open 24 hours so i'm sure that the sisters went though hell with cars driving past their windows 24/7. when the sisters passed away, the store 'got' their property, and paved it all. i'm glad that the sisters 'held their ground'. i hope that you find the country home still standing. wouldn't it be great if it was, knowing that they were not forced to give it up?

keep in mind that no one is safe from eminent domain. the 12-16 ft. wall would be nice but the extra noise would drive me nuts..........

I would not be able to stand it!

that is great that it is illegal to use it there. i wish the same applied here. they tried but needed i think something like 500,000 signatures to get it on the ballot. they fell short by about 60,000 signatures

oh it sure does suck! its stealing in its purest form. all is quiet here for now but that doesnt mean that they wont try it again later on. i'm bracing myself for that time. (sorry for the slow response, i've been having major connectivity problems lately and just finally got that fixed!)

oh you know they will have some kind of law backing them up! they'll pay lawyers gazillions of dollars to write it so that everyone shares the wealth and the little guys loses his property. its just not fair.........

wow, thats definately a big loss back in 61! with eminent domain, i found out that they ONLY have to pay you 25 cents on the dollar of the property's worth. that makes me sick to even think that they can go that low and get away with it.

thanks for your comment.
It should be at fair market value. That is a part of Missouri law.
Also in the law, it has to be a "public works" type project.
There was a project that got about 2, maybe 3 blocks of homes behind what was a huge store (the department store building had to be torn down, first, for this project.)
After the store, and all of the buildings/homes were torn down, and MOST of the concrete was removed; the contractor lost a lawsuit and went out of business.
I do not know what; if anything happened to that property since I left ST Louis.

We got about 80% of the value by taking the first offer. One family did get about 10 cents on the dollar. ( Also, because of my father being an aeronautical engineer for a government agency, is the other reason WHY we got 80% of the real worth.)

the one thing they cannot take is our pride and dignity. everything else, they feel like they have have their 'mits' into and take and take and take........