Eminent Domain Report

When the California Supreme Court issued its ruling on Property Reserve v. Superior Court, handing a substantial victory to public agencies, we were given three key takeaways:  (1) the Right of Entry statutes (CCP §1245.010 et seq.) are constitutional, (2) the activities the Department of Water Resources sought to undertake are covered by the broad scope of these statues, and (3) if the language of a statute doesn’t match your planned opinion, you can always reform it to match the claimed legislative intent of the statute.

To that last point, the Court’s opinion included its ...

On February 9, 2017, California Assembly Member Phillip Chen (a Republican from the 55^th district) introduced Assembly Bill 408 (AB 408).  You can find a copy of the bill here.  AB 408 is styled as an act to amend Section 1250.410 of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to eminent domain.  There is very little history available on AB 408 and it appears that the next action is for it to be heard in committee on March 12, 2017.  If AB 408 is ultimately approved in its current form, it would radically change the standards by which courts decide whether or not to award litigation expenses in eminent ...

There has been a lot of news lately concerning President Trump’s desire to build a border wall. Many of the articles focus on the efficacy, costs and practical challenges of building the wall.  But the discussions are also starting to move into our world of eminent domain.  An Op Ed piece in the Washington Post  talks about Donald Trump’s Great Wall of Eminent Domain and mentions that 67 percent of the nearly 2,000 border miles constitute private and state-owned lands. The Daily Beast published an article called The Great Wall of Trump Would Be the Ultimate Eminent Domain Horror Show ...

Before an eminent domain action is filed, public infrastructure projects involve years of planning, environmental approvals, design, and property negotiations.  During this time, property owners and real estate agents/brokers are often faced with deciding what to disclose about the potential condemnation to prospective tenants when attempting to lease out space.  It is a difficult position to be in, as (i) disclosing too much makes it extraordinarily difficult to find a tenant willing to pay market rents with the looming "cloud" of condemnation, and (ii) disclosing too ...

In a previous post, "What is 'Just Compensation' For Gas Station Acquisitions," we explored various methods for valuing gas stations and car washes in an eminent domain action, including a recommendation by a gas station appraisal firm, Retail Petroleum Consultants, to approach such valuation assignments as "special use properties".  Retail Petroleum has issued another useful article, "Value Trends in Gas Stations and Car Washes," which examines recent trends driving the valuation of such properties in California.

Retail Petroleum explains that because gas stations ...

One of the hot issues in eminent domain these days involves the government's efforts to take over privately-run utility companies.  The argument typically is that the government -- which has no profit-making motive -- can run the utility at a lower cost, saving the ratepayers money.   Not surprisingly, the utility companies feel otherwise.

In California, one of the first cases to reach trial on this issue is about to wrap up.  The City of Claremont sought to condemn the Golden State Water Company's assets, and Golden State fought the City's right to take.

In a Court trial (i.e., a trial ...

With only a few days remaining until one of the most controversial presidential elections in history, there has been little focus on the candidates' plans as it pertains to the future of infrastructure development in America.  But both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have big spending plans -- they are just vastly different in their proposals on how funds will be raised and spent.  If you're interested in a detailed breakdown of Clinton's and Trump's infrastructure plans, there is an excellent article by Chuck Devore in Forbes titled "Where Clinton and Trump Stand on Transportation".

Last year, my partner Ben Rubin reported on the California Supreme Court's decision in California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose, which analyzed an inclusionary housing ordinance and held that such ordinances do not qualify as "exactions" and, consequently, are reviewed under a deferential standard that looked at whether the ordinance was "reasonably related" to the city’s interest in promoting the health, safety, and welfare of the community.

Last month, we saw the first published decision following last year's Supreme Court pronouncement ...

In January, I spoke at a conference in Austin about efforts by municipalities to condemn privately-held utility companies.  At the time, I figured it would be a one-off presentation on a pretty niche issue, even for eminent domain attorneys.  But next month, I'll be speaking on a variation of that topic at CLE International's 2016 Eminent Domain Conference in Las Vegas, a presentation that will be the third time this year I've spoken on the topic.

In fact, we've been following this issue since at least 2014, when my partner Brad Kuhn wrote about a takeover effort involving PG&E.  Those ...

Last summer, I wrote about the Appraisal Institute’s controversial effort to promote legislation in California (known as AB 624) that would enable licensed real estate appraisers performing appraisals for non-federally-related transactions to use any nationally or internationally recognized standard of valuation. I commented at the time that it wasn’t difficult to envision a parade of horribles that might result should appraisers be permitted to identify obscure international standards for an appraisal assignment in order to drive value up or down for a litigant.

Not ...