Eminent Domain Report

According to an article in the Orange County Register, "H.B. mobile home park owner fights city's property seizure," the owner of Pacific Mobilehome Park is challenging a street-widening project for which the City of Huntington Beach plans acquire eight mobile homes through the use eminent domain.  The street-widening project will widen Atlanta Avenue between Huntington Street and Delaware Street, and the mobile home park owner claims the project's environmental impacts were not sufficiently studied. 

The City's zoning administrator waived the need for an in-depth ...

Few property owners look forward with any enthusiasm to the date the government finally announces it is moving forward with plans to condemn their property.   But owners who pretend that day will never actually arrive often realize too late that they have missed opportunities to protect their investments.

Eminent domain often proceeds over a very long time-table.  From project conception to right of way acquisition, years may pass, with properties held up in a cruel limbo as owners wait to see if the project really happens, and if so, whether their property will ultimately be impacted. 

In ...

Yesterday, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of our blog's launch.  We were planning to get a cake, but remembering back to what my one-year-old looked like after we put a cake in front of him on his first birthday, we decided to commemorate the occasion by preparing a "top 10" list from our blog's first year.

Admittedly, selecting 10 items was not a scientific process, and "top 10" really became "10 posts I can describe in a single short sentence," but in any event, here it is, the Top 10 Things You've Learned if You've Been Following Our Eminent Domain Blog (by the way, I find it ...

Business goodwill appears to be a hot topic for the California Court of Appeal, as it was the primary issue in the recent LAUSD v. Casasola opinion, and is again the focus of an unpublished decision that came down last week, People Ex Rel. Department of Transportation v. Ahn.

In Ahn, Caltrans condemned a shopping center where Ahn owned and operated a framing store and art gallery.  After Caltrans took possession, the owner transferred to a relocation site.  At trial, Caltrans' goodwill expert determined the business had $26,000 of goodwill in the "before condition," and ...

According to an article in this week's New York Times, "Solar Power Plants to Rise on U.S. Land," the United States has approved two large solar power plants to be built on federal lands.  This is the first time such large plants will be built on federal land, and both are slated for California. 

The first plant is proposed by Tessera Solar and will be built on 6,360 acres in the Imperial Valley.  The second plant is proposed by Chevron Energy and will be built on 422 acres in the Lucerne Valley.  When completed, the two projects could generate enough energy to power as many as 566,000 ...

Just a quick update on yesterday's post about West Oakland involving Kroger's plans to build a store there.  Last night, the City Council unanimously approved changes to its eminent domain policies to allow the city to condemn the property necessary for the planned project. 

While reports of the hearing have somewhat different tones, it is fairly clear that the meeting was well attended, and that audience members were passionate, regardless of which side of the issue they supported. 

As the Sean Maher reports it for the Contra Costa Times in "Oakland City Council changes eminent ...

West Oakland has some notoriously tough neighborhoods, including the large ACORN project area where Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton was killed and an area known unflatteringly as "Ghost Town."  Over the years, it has been the subject of some controversial public works projects, facilitated through extensive eminent domain.  This includes the West Oakland BART station, a major postal facility, and the ACORN housing project.  

An October 4 article in the Contra Costa Times by Brian Beveridge, "'Eminent domain' draws shudders in West Oakland" describes the ...

We've reported in the past about some of the regulatory takings issues created as a result of the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority's ("RCA") efforts to conserve property pursuant to the Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan ("MSHCP").  It now appears that those conservation efforts have created quite the turmoil with citizens in the City of Murrieta.

According to a recent North County Times article, "MURRIETA: Landowners frustrated with conservation board, city leaders who refuse to meet," about 100 members have organized a group called the ...

Just before the midnight deadline for taking action yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 2531, the bill that would increase the eminent domain authority of the Community Redevelopment Association of Los Angeles.  His late-night message to the legislature was as follows:

To the Members of the California State Assembly:

I am returning Assembly Bill 2531 without my signature.
Redevelopment funds are to be used solely for the purpose of eliminating blight in urban neighborhoods in California cities. This bill would authorize the use of redevelopment funds for projects ...

In May, we reported on the City of Chino Hills' efforts to stop a portion of Southern California Edison's Tehachapi Transmission Project.  The project involves 175 miles of transmission line right of way designed to serve wind farm development in the Tehachapi area. 

Much of the right of way for the transmission lines runs through remote, undeveloped areas.  Though there have been many disputes over the amount of money SCE must pay to acquire any new right of way it needs (much of the project runs along pre-existing right of way), there has been little dispute about SCE's right to ...