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“Not Imminent in My Domain!” County Leaders’ Attitudes toward Eminent Domain Decisions
Abstract
Eminent domain is an urgent problem facing local government administrators and scholars throughout the United States. However, the literature is sparse regarding how local leaders make decisions on this hot-button issue. A 2006 Government Accountability Office report noted a lack of data about local governments’ use of their eminent domain authority. A survey of county managers in North Carolina was conducted to redress this apparent knowledge gap. Although the findings are primarily generalizable only to other Dillon’s rule states, such data demonstrate that eminent domain applies more often for “narrow” (public use) purposes, such as water and sewer systems, than for “broad” (public good) purposes, such as economic development. Current and future property considerations also influence eminent domain decisions.
[A] law that takes property from A, and gives it to B: It is against all reason and justice, for a people to entrust a legislature with such powers; and, therefore, it cannot be presumed that they have done it.
—Associate Justice Samuel Chase, majority opinion, Calder v. Bull (1798)
... Similarly, using vote data from 14 state-level eminent domain reform measures, Hoehn and Adanu (2014) argue that property ownership, economic vulnerability, and political ideology all independently influence attitudes toward takings. In a study of actual uses of eminent domain by county administrators, Hoyman and McCall (2010) found that only about 7% of takings in their sample were intended to be used for economic development. In surveying these county officials, they found that officials reported a "propensity toward a narrow interpretation of a legitimate government purpose for eminent domain" (889). ...
... These are "traditional" uses of the eminent domain power (Epstein 1985). These uses are commonly viewed as provisions of "collective goods" or remedies for "collective bads" (Hoyman and McCall 2010). ...
... 8. Historically, eminent domain has generally been viewed as a last means (force) to an end (provision of a public good) pursued only when other attempts to acquire the needed property failed (see generally Lewis 1909;Nichols 1917;Bird and Oswald 2009;Bird 2010;Hoyman and McCall 2010), though there are, of course, exceptions (e.g., Scheiber 1973). ...
The power of government to take private property for public use has been a frequent source of political disquiet because of the tension it creates with notions of individual rights ingrained in liberal society. The backlash against takings after Kelo offers a case in point. Existing research has focused on the public’s distaste for the taking of homes and has thus missed an important cause of the backlash: the purpose for which property is taken. I utilize a combination of experimental and observational methods to advance our understanding of this important issue, finding that purpose is crucial in shaping attitudes toward takings.
... Eminent domain as outlined in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution proclaims that government shall not take private property except for public use and with just compensation (Perry, 2016). The power of eminent domain is often used by cities in connection with blighted areas to accomplish their plans for urban renewal projects (Blight and Eminent Domain, n.d;Hoyman & McCall, 2010). It has been long used as a tool to claim private property (History Of the Federal Use of Eminent Domain, 2015; Perry 2016). ...
... Eminent domain as outlined in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution proclaims that government shall not take private property except for public use and with just compensation (Perry, 2016). The power of eminent domain is often used by cities in connection with blighted areas to accomplish their plans for urban renewal projects (Blight and Eminent Domain, n.d;Hoyman & McCall, 2010). It has been long used as a tool to claim private property (History Of the Federal Use of Eminent Domain, 2015; Perry 2016). ...
It has been documented that the United States has seized millions of acres of privately
owned land from African Americans in the name of eminent domain. A policy that gives the
government power to take privately owned property for “public good” or commercial use in
exchange for just compensation, is used to obliterate self-sustaining African American
communities throughout the US as early as the 19th century. Compensation was one of the
serious problems faced by families affected by the earliest urban renewal projects guided by
eminent domain (Fullilove et al., 2016).
Eminent domain in African American spaces is a nationwide phenomenon; however, for
this project, the researcher focused on the Washington, DC, and surrounding counties that make
up the DMV area. First, pulling from previous studies, which examined the psychological impact
of eminent domain, this research aims to examine the economic effect to give further context to
the taking of property and other systemic structures that stripped African Americans of
prosperity, leading to the present-day wealth gap.
The research problem addressed in this inquiry addresses whether individuals displaced
due to eminent domain suffered financial loss and the financial impact that loss has on
intergenerational wealth. As a qualitative approach, this study brings forth the lived experiences
of African Americans impacted by eminent domain.
Secondly, this research raises awareness and identified descendants of those who were
victims of land theft. In addition, this research can catalyze reform of eminent domain and seek
restitution for land taken unjustly, starting with examining the African American enclaves in
Montgomery County. Ultimately this research seeks to advance the literature on this
phenomenon and lived experiences of those impacted to provide a resolution to wealth lost.
v
The research questions centered on the understanding of their perceptions and lived
experiences of persons who were displaced due to eminent domain. The researcher for this
present study utilized a purposive and snowball sampling of 5 participants and administered 12
questions to capture reflections and personal stories that uncovered the financial impact of
eminent domain. All interviews were conducted recorded and transcribed via Zoom. NVivo was
used to code the transcribed interviews and to analyze for themes. The findings of this study
conclude that there is a correlation between eminent domain and lack of generational wealth.
Keywords: black/white wealth gap, eminent domain, stolen land, stolen property,
property rights
... Eminent domain-the government power to acquire private property for some public use, with just compensation-is, in the best of circumstances, unpopular (Hoyman & McCall, 2010;Somin, 2015). When the government uses something like its eminent domain power but does not provide "just compensation, " this is known as a "taking. ...
Floods are the costliest disasters in American history—and today, floods are getting both worse and more common. As flooding becomes ever more salient one might expect that public support for flood prevention and mitigation policies would grow, yet we see significant opposition to a wide range of flood policies. We find, across four samples and a range of study designs and measurement strategies, that citizens are more likely to oppose flood mitigation policies when they think the policy in question will harm someone's property rights. This finding has important real‐world implications, as many policy proposals aimed at addressing flood disasters, including approaches as diverse as floodwater diversion and elimination of flood insurance subsidies, can infringe on property rights and interests. This study highlights one tension in addressing flood policy in democratically acceptable ways, and also the important effects that framing can have on mass support for flood mitigation policies.
... Aside from this limitation, North Carolina has a varied economic base, diverse racial composition, considerable in-migration and growth, and resulting stresses on its governments, albeit no one state could reasonably be representative of all of the others. North Carolina is a growing state that faces pressures for service delivery similar to those of other states (Bowman & Parsons, 2013;Hoyman & McCall, 2010;Prentice et al., 2019), so that our analysis grounded in the research literature may be applied to the examination of volunteer involvement in other regional contexts. With respect to partisan politics, North Carolina is split relatively evenly by political party: It was a "swing state" in the 2016 Presidential election (and again in 2020), giving 49.8% of its vote to Republican Donald Trump, yet electing Democratic Governor Roy Cooper with 49%. ...
The global COVID-19 health pandemic has put extraordinary pressure on already fiscally strapped local governments. As local jurisdictions search for strategies to meet rising service expectations with declining resources, use of volunteers would seem to offer significant advantages. This study examines the involvement of volunteers to deliver services in all county governments in one U.S. state, as well as the factors that explain the extent of use of this service approach. Our analysis is based on information collected from a survey of county government officials working in 10 service domains, supplemented by demographic and other data drawn from a variety of sources. To arrive at valid estimates of volunteer involvement in the delivery of county services, we introduce a novel methodology that corrects our survey data for possible sample and response biases based on a calibration estimator using auxiliary information. The results of our inquiry reveal a higher use of volunteers to deliver services by county governments than suggested by the literature. The findings show, moreover, that counties with higher per capita income, greater percentage of residents attaining a bachelor’s degree or higher formal education, and lower unemployment are likely to involve volunteers in the delivery of more services, as are those county governments with greater per capita spending and per capita property tax revenues. These results have important implications in regard to the capacity of local governments to use volunteers, which we treat in the Discussion.
... According to Bowman and Parsons (2013), "Although single-state studies have limited generalizability, North Carolina counties offer much variability in terms of demographics and social factors, thereby lessening the limitation (Hoyman & McCall, 2010) and providing a defensible test bed for exploration . . ." (p. ...
This study explores the circumstances under which certain collaborative tools are adopted, and whether some tools are typically used in combination with others. We share the view of other scholars that collaboration practice is ahead of scholarship. Accordingly, we ground our analysis and conclusions on the observations provided by a sample of public managers who participate actively in collaborations. Findings from interviews with managers about the use of collaborative tools in their jurisdictions demonstrate that certain tools are used together, and that collaborations can be understood along three dimensions—structure of the collaboration, shared governance arrangements, and commitment of both parties to the collaboration. For researchers, this finding provides a foundation to comprehend, compare, and analyze collaborations across myriad policy domains. For practitioners, this result illustrates that collaborative tools are not interchangeable and are typically employed in three coherent groupings. For researchers and practitioners, the findings dispute common assumptions that greater collaboration (i.e., employing more tools) is productive and suggest that the emphasis might be more usefully placed on selecting and using the appropriate and parsimonious combination of tools to generate public value.
... First, the formulation of the Special Law was an elite-driven phenomenon; it was not a movement from the ground up (Heslinga, 2003). Second, the economic development literature demonstrates that local leaders have long assumed a role of crafters and champions of economic development policy through a variety of strategies like ecotourism (Fleischmann, Green, & Kwong, 1992;Hoyman & McCall, 2010;Judd & Parkinson, 1990;Morgan, 2010;Reese, 1993;Rubin, 1988;Wolman & Spitzley, 1996). The researchers interviewed leaders in all three sectors (private, public, and non-profit), because the literature shows that economic development policy is not solely crafted by government leaders. ...
Public policies designed to encourage ecotourism in the Galapagos Islands have evolved in the decades since the islands became center stage in the international dialogue about environmental conservation. One of the most important pieces of legislation that regulates how the islands’ governments should balance economic development and environmental preservation is the Special Law of 1998. This chapter examines the unique historical, political, and economic factors that ultimately shaped the policies included in the Special Law. The authors examine the effectiveness and impacts of the law using the lens of local public and nonprofit leaders who were surveyed about ecotourism regulations in July 2011. The results show that although Galapagos leaders generally supported regulations designed around sustainable development, they were not as uniformly positive about the implementation and effectiveness of the Special Law.
... First, the formulation of the Special Law was an elite-driven phenomenon; it was not a movement from the ground up (Heslinga, 2003). Second, the economic development literature demonstrates that local leaders have long assumed a role of crafters and champions of economic development policy through a variety of strategies like ecotourism (Fleischmann, Green, & Kwong, 1992;Hoyman & McCall, 2010;Judd & Parkinson, 1990;Morgan, 2010;Reese, 1993;Rubin, 1988;Wolman & Spitzley, 1996). The researchers interviewed leaders in all three sectors (private, public, and non-profit), because the literature shows that economic development policy is not solely crafted by government leaders. ...
In 1998, the government of Ecuador enacted a special law with the goal of both promoting environmental preservation and economic development in the Galapagos Islands. The reforms in the Special Law of 1998 were sweeping. Among other things it created the Galapagos Marine Preserve, limited the ability of immigrants arriving from mainland Ecuador to secure employment, restricted fishing to local residents only, and increased the institutional power of regulatory organisations like the Galapagos National Park. This article presents the results of a series of qualitative interviews conducted in July 2011 with local Island leaders on their support for the Special Law of 1998 in general and in regards to its implementation. The interviews also asked the respondents' opinions on a wider set of ecotourism policies and issues. The findings indicate that generally there is a great amount of support for the law amongst leaders, but there is a strong consensus that the Special Law has not been implemented effectively. The reasons behind these failures of implementation are multifaceted, but include: the weak and fragmented status of Galapagos institutions, a lack of professionalised leadership, leadership which engages in politicised decision-making, and, finally, failures to enforce unpopular provisions of the Special Law.
A controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London (2005) which did not limit the use of state's eminent domain powers, led to an unprecedented legislative reaction by almost all 50 states. Of all, New York State stands out as one of the single states not to respond with a legislative amendment. In this study, I ask whether the state's predation was greater in the years following these legal and political developments, in light of the freedom which was granted to local politicians by both the Supreme Court and the state's legislators. The article hypothesizes that contrary to common perceptions, judicial decisions impact local government actions even when no limits on the use of powers are being posed. I use rigorous statistics and scrupulously defined data to expand scholarly understanding of the aftermath of the judicial decision in Kelo. The main finding is that the decision has in fact affected political behavior, but in the opposite direction than commonly expected: politicians in New York City acted consistently with public opinion, which was hostile too Kelo, not by changing the law, but by changing their practice. Studying all known taking exercises in New York City between 1991 and 2019, the paper finds no increase in the number of development projects involving condemnations after 2005. In fact, the probability of a taking for economic development or urban renewal dropped by 90%. The use of eminent domain for such projects declined even when both state and federal courts refrain from interposing any actual limit on its use. The paper lends qualified support to an alternative assertion that takings decisions by government officials are largely shaped by planning and political needs and that officials are sensitive to revealed public preferences even when there is no constitutional or legal impediment on their exercise of power.
Communities with high levels of social capital enjoy an array of positive economic and community development outcomes. We assess the role of several key community characteristics, including the strength of government institutions, in explaining local social capital variation. The analysis draws on data from United States counties and includes regression modelling and a Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition to explore differences in social capital across an area’s metropolitan status and region. The data show social capital determinants vary by place both due to the endowment levels of these determinants and the productive value of their coefficients. For example, the coefficient productive values of government capacity explain some differences in social capital levels across metropolitan status (but not across region). Concurrently, variations in government capacity endowment levels help explain some differences in social capital levels across region (but not across metropolitan status).
Counties have expanded the scope of their activities in the economic development process. However, limited research exists of the factors that influence economic growth and development trends of these unique communities. The primary focus of this case study analysis is to determine whether form of government has an impact on county economic growth and development trends while controlling for environmental context and demographic characteristics in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Washington. To empirically test the impact that county form of government and environmental factors have on local economic growth and development trends, ordinary least squares regression is used. The results of this study show that form of government has only a marginal impact on county economic growth and development trends. County environmental factors are found to have a more substantive impact on the economic growth and development trends of counties across these four states.
Community and business interests are set in opposition, rather than in a harmonious balance, in the 2005 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London. The narrative of eminent domain, through the lens of Kelo, highlights these conflicting values. The case presents a local government that used its power of takings to attract Pfizer, the pharmaceutical conglomerate, to build a plant for production of the little blue pill, which symbolizes private interests in this case. The community’s dissension of taking an individual’s private property for use by another private entity centered on a pink house, which has come to be known as the symbol of eminent domain abuse. This narrative is explored through in-depth interviews with public administrators experienced with eminent domain, community grassroots organizers involved with the case, and relevant articles from the local newspaper. A key finding of the study surrounds similarities between the perspectives of those people involved in Kelo and administrators throughout the state of Connecticut, the birthplace of the case. Although a nation built on the notion of the right to hold private property, the case suggests that in an era of late capitalism, business is of utmost importance to the community regardless of citizens’ desires in the United States.
Local officials in the emergency management field have reached out and increased their connections with other agencies and organizations during the past several years. Collaborative networks have been created in an effort to address the complexities and uncertainties surrounding extreme events. But has this collaboration really taken root? In this article, the authors find that although a collaborative ethos has penetrated local emergency management, it is neither deep nor uniform. Data from a survey of emergency managers in North Carolina counties show that maintaining a functional network—a performance regime in which participants develop consistent management practices and rely on each other for the generation of new ideas—is a difficult task. The explanation for the variation found across the counties largely involves capacity and vulnerability.
Despite the bias against such studies in our discipline, we argue that research designs focusing on a single state are sometimes preferable to those employing data from all 50 states. Single state studies are appropriate when the researcher wishes to generalize to a unit of analysis other than the states themselves, when conditions in a given state provide a unique opportunity for the most rigorous test of a hypothesis, and when the measurement advantages of a single-state study outweigh the costs of limited generalization. We draw on a range of literature to reinforce our primary contention, that it is soundness of theory and rigor of analysis, rather than the number of states, that makes research valid and important.
Published just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down their controversial decision on Kelo v. City of New London in 2005, this article, in correctly predicting the outcome of the Supreme Court opinion, explores in Section I how the concept of what constitutes a public use has evolved over the decades from traditionally accepted uses such as public roads, buildings (e.g., government buildings and schools), and utilities to urban redevelopment. It explains how the broad concepts of community redevelopment have been stretched to encompass needed economic development projects that promise jobs, tax revenue, and other public benefits similar to those currently being debated before the courts of our country. Section II begins by briefly examining the development of the "public use" clause with respect to eminent domain. Section III discusses a recent policy guide adopted by the American Planning Association (APA) on community redevelopment. Section IV then examines three significant cases from 2004 that crystallized around the question of what constitutes a valid public purpose under eminent domain when the government's motivation is to promote economic development in the municipality. Section V concludes that the U.S. Supreme Court should confirm that economic development is a valid public use for the purpose of eminent domain, and that the public-private partnerships that have evolved to assist governments in meeting redevelopment needs are a necessary and appropriate strategy fostering a valid public use.
Theory: Open systems theories of administration suggest that implementation of a federal policy should reflect the systematic effects of state-level conditions on bureaucratic discretion. Hypotheses: Usage of the good cause exemption in the child support enforcement program will vary systematically across states depending on the internal and environmental characteristics of state bureaucracies. Methods: A pooled time-series model is used to analyze patterns of exemption in the fifty states for 1990 through 1992. Results: Discretionary use of the good cause exemption is systematically affected by partisan control of state governments, the values of state administrators, the funding decisions of elected officials, and the levels of demand placed on the bureaucracy.
The leviathan hypothesis maintains that direct and indirect constitutional constraints are necessary to control government expansion. Various branches of economic literature have examined the effects of decentralization, an indirect constraint, as well as direct constraints such as tax and expenditure limitations. Home rule power describes the level of local discretionary authority municipal and county governments have with respect to a wide range of governing functions. This form of direct constitutional constraint has been overlooked in the literature. This paper determines that home rule has no effect on the size of government in a standard leviathan model; however, the leviathan hypothesis itself implies that home rule is a choice made by state governments at the constitutional stage, and taking this selection process into account, the empirical results are consistent with the leviathan hypothesis. States that allow greater home rule freedoms have larger government sectors than states whose local governments have more restricted governing powers.
Research has found both age and gender to be significant factors in howemployees evaluate sexual harassment policies. The presence of different perspectives on sexual harassment amongmen and women of different age groupsmay have significant implications for the implementation of sexual harassment policies. To the extent that older employees aremore likely to be in positions of authority or supervision, they are a critical link in the design and implementation of effective policies. Using a survey of 595municipal employees, this article concludes that there are significant age group differences amongmale and female employees regarding perceptions of sexual harassment, attitudes about model policy and procedure, and evaluations of workplace policies. Specific policy recommendations are posed to address these critical employee and supervisor differences.
Why do states persist in offering large financial incentives to firms to induce them to invest in the state, a practice commonly derided as "smoke-stack chasing"? The conventional wisdom is that while incentives may be a poor long term economic development strategy, they are a good political strategy for governors seeking to improve economic conditions and political support in the short term. Using the annual list of top economic development deals compiled by Site Selection magazine, we examine the political impact of these "trophy" industrial recruitment projects on county level election returns in gubernatorial elections from 1986-2004. Our results demonstrate that trophy hunting is an excellent short term political strategy that dramatically increases the number of votes a governor receives in the subsequent election.
The growth and decline of communities have become major policy concerns for all levels of government in the United States. This note relies on two theoretical perspectives and a national sample of cities to analyze the variation in local economic development policies. The evidence suggests that both broader economic or social forces ("structure") and the actions of local political and economic actors ("agency") influence local economic development efforts. Among the best predictors of the economic development policies adopted by a city are its total population, metropolitan status, poverty level, property tax burden, the type of local organization serving as lead actor in promoting economic development, the adoption of an economic development plan, and the presence of a specialized city agency for economic development.
From the end of Georgia's white primary in 1946 to the present, Atlanta has been a community of growing black electoral strength and stable white economic power. Yet the ballot box and investment money never became opposing weapons in a battle for domination. Instead, Atlanta experienced the emergence and evolution of a biracial coalition. Although beset by changing conditions and significant cost pressures, this coalition has remained intact. At critical junctures forces of cooperation overcame antagonisms of race and ideology. While retaining a critical distance from rational choice theory, author Clarence Stone finds the problem of collective action to be centrally important. The urban condition in America is one of weak and diffuse authority, and this situation favors any group that can act cohesively and control a substantial body of resources. Those endowed with a capacity to promote cooperation can attract allies and overcome oppositional forces. On the negative side of the political ledger, Atlanta's style of civic cooperation is achieved at a cost. Despite an ambitious program of physical redevelopment, the city is second only to Newark, New Jersey, in the poverty rate. Social problems, conflict of interest issues, and inattention to the production potential of a large lower class bespeak a regime unable to address a wide range of human needs. No simple matter of elite domination, it is a matter of governing arrangements built out of selective incentives and inside deal-making; such arrangements can serve only limited purposes. The capacity of urban regimes to bring about elaborate forms of physical redevelopment should not blind us to their incapacity to address deeply rooted social problems. Stone takes the historical approach seriously. The flow of events enables us to see how some groups deploy their resource advantages to fashion governing arrangements to their liking. But no one enjoys a completely free hand; some arrangements are more workable than others. Stone's theory-minded analysis of key events enables us to ask why and what else might be done. "Regime Politics" offers readers a political history of postwar Atlanta and an elegant, innovative, and incisive conceptual framework destined to influence the way urban politics is studied.
As downtown redevelopment occurs, eminent domain continues to be used as an economic development tool. This research evaluates the equity, effectiveness, and efficiency of certain components of eminent domain as it is used for downtown economic development projects. A survey-based methodology was employed to acquire data from city managers located in the 239 most populous cities within the United States. The findings indicate that eminent domain is effective in raising property tax values, efficient in minimizing litigation-based project delays, but inequitable to various developers seeking title to property following condemnation.
Economic development practitioners face an uncertain environment in which their ability to bring about economic development is dependent upon factors over which they have little, if any, control. Using extended excerpts from open-ended interviews, the author explores how the economic development practitioners attempt to cope with uncertainty. The interviews illustrate both the frustrations practitioners feel about their work and the accommodations they make in doing their work. The author presents a speculative model, based upon Stone's work on system bias, of how the perspective toward developmental work held by the practitioner might increasingly tilt public sector actions toward the business community.
American legislative studies in recent years have been occupied to a large degree with the question of the effects of political parties on the policy behavior of elected legislators, with most of the research focusing on the U.S. Congress. We undertake a comparative analysis of state legislatures for a window into the character and extent of party's effects. Specifically, we compare the impact of party on the partisan polarization and dimensionality of campaign issue stances and roll call voting in the Kansas Senate and the largely comparable, though nonpartisan, Nebraska Unicameral. This comparison offers us a nice quasi-experiment to assess the impact of party by establishing a baseline condition in Nebraska for what happens when party is absent. We argue that party lends order to conflict, producing the ideological low-dimensional space that is a trademark of American politics. Where parties are not active in the legislature—Nebraska is our test case—the clear structure found in partisan politics disappears. This works to sever the connection between voters and their elected representatives and, with it, the likelihood of electoral accountability that is essential for the health of liberal democracy.
We gauge the relative impact of economics, demographics, and politics on the decisions of 79 rural North Carolina counties whether to site a prison in the period 1970–2000. The results of this model demonstrate that, contrary to the expectation that counties site prisons in response to economic distress, the demographic characteristics of each county affect the relative likelihood of a prison siting more than its economics does. The influential demographic predictors are those inextricably bound up with development options—the education levels of its citizens—and those that limit its ability to pursue controversial projects—its not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) constituencies—rather than those that measure its racial diversity. Therefore, prison siting is neither a simple story of economic determinism nor one of environmental racism. We use a proportional hazards regression to model this innovation adoption in response to the challenge to select methods that take the potential time dependence of adoptions into account. A duration model is also particularly suitable for cases such as this one for which the innovation adoption is better understood as a process than as an event.
This article evaluates the influence of devolution on perceived and actual policy outcomes at the local level in the United States. Proponents of devolution often argue that the transfer of policymaking authority to a lower level of government allows subnational officials to more effectively address problems on the government's agenda. We provide one of the first empirical evaluations of this implicit assumption of devolution. We utilize data from 100 counties in one state, North Carolina, that were the recipients of additional welfare policymaking authority in 1997 to provide a preliminary assessment of devolution's consequences and policy impact. We then investigate the recipient governments’ ability to bring about positive change using three prominent indicators associated with welfare policy. Our findings provide evidence that devolution matters quite significantly to the perception of policymaking effectiveness; however, devolution's actual impact on policy outcomes is mixed.
An owner-occupied home is an unusual asset because it cannot be diversified among locations and because it is the only sizable asset that most owners possess. Among the uninsured risks of homeownership is devaluation by nearby changes in land use. Opponents of land-use change are called NIMBYs ("Not In My Back Yard"). This article submits that NIMBYism is a rational response to the uninsured risks of home-ownership. It explores the possibilities and drawbacks of providing an insurance market to cover such risks. It concludes that some progress is being made towards developing such markets.
By examining a novel data set of land acquisitions and condemnations for roads by all 50 states, this article attempts to formulate a positive theory of states' invocation of their eminent domain power. Litigation models based on irrationality and asymmetric information suggest that geography, demography, and legal rules may influence the frequency with which state officials resort to condemnation. To a significant degree, the data support these models, as water area and hilliness (geography), population density (demography), and legal rules (fee-shifting statutes) explain a significant portion of the state-state variation in condemnation rates. A number of other theoretically relevant explanatory variables do not seem to influence the level of eminent domain in a state (length of coastline, unusual constitutional takings provisions, political party in power, population growth rate, and economic growth rate). Finally we consider the difference between the model's predicted condemnation rate and the rate reported by each state. Some states can justify their seemingly high condemnation rates based on their geography and demography (e.g. Rhode Island's high condemnation rate is largely explained by it population density and large water area); some missing explanatory variables seem necessary to explain those states for which there are large residuals (e.g. Florida's large positive residual; Delaware's large negative residual).
In this paper we discuss the tensions at play on a global scale with respect to private property, community development, and the exercise of the power of eminent domain. Discussion centers on the case of Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) but addresses the underlying issues in a variety of contexts, and with reference to generalized standards including aspects of the EU's "fair balance" test. The paper touches on matters of significance in real estate transactions, housing, land use planning, and property law more generally.The paper serves as chapter one in the book, PRIVATE PROPERTY, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, AND EMINENT DOMAIN published in the book series on Law, Property, and Society from Ashgate Publishing. Other chapters to this book are contributed by: Tom Allen (University of Durham, U.K.), D. Benjamin Barros (Widener), Carol Necole Brown (North Carolina), Eric R. Claeys (George Mason), Rachel Godsil (with David Simunovich, Esq., Seton Hall), Marc Poirier (Seton Hall), and Michael Alan Wolf (Florida).
The Public Use Clause of the Fifth Amendment has come under increasing constitutional fire in recent years. Furthermore, the government's allowable use of its eminent domain power has also expanded, particularly in the context of economic redevelopment projects. A growing debate has developed regarding the limitations the clause places on the government's ability to use its eminent domain power. Recent United States Supreme Court decisions, in conjunction with decisions from various state courts, have expanded the scope of the public use clause to allow for the use of eminent domain in private developments. This article focuses on the use of eminent domain for these so called "public-private takings". This article begins by exploring the historical development of the eminent domain power and the public use requirement. The article then examines the current constitutional framework of the Public Use Clause. Issue is taken with the current analysis and the conclusion is reached that the existing takings scheme leads to economic inefficiency. Specifically, the use of eminent domain to execute a public private taking imposes significant welfare costs on society and can lead to interest group capture of a government's eminent domain power. The article concludes by offering an alternative analysis framework in order to determine public use in the context of economic redevelopment projects. The goal of the proposed framework is to create a stringent criteria in order to eliminate welfare costs and the threat of interest group capture.
The Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which upheld the power of government to condemn private property for purposes of economic development, generated a massive political backlash from across the political spectrum. Over forty states, as well as the federal government, have enacted post-Kelo reform legislation to curb eminent domain. This Article is the first comprehensive analysis of the legislative response to Kelo. It challenges the validity of claims that the political backlash to Kelo will provide the same sort of protection for property owners as would a judicial ban on economic development takings. Most of the newly enacted post-Kelo reform laws are likely to be ineffective. Part I describes the Kelo decision and documents the widespread anger it generated. Both state-level and national surveys show overwhelming public opposition to economic development takings - opposition that cuts across racial, gender, political, and socioeconomic divisions. The backlash against Kelo is the largest against any Supreme Court decision in decades, and the legislative response is possibly the most extensive to any Supreme Court decision in history.Part II analyzes the state and federal political response to Kelo. Thirty-six state legislatures have enacted post-Kelo reform laws. However, twenty-two of these are largely symbolic in nature, providing little or no protection for property owners. Several of the remainder either have significant loopholes or were enacted by states that had little or no history of condemning property for economic development. The major exceptions to the pattern of ineffective post-Kelo reforms are the eleven states that recently enacted reforms by popular referendum. Strikingly, citizen-initiated referendum initiatives have led to the passage of much stronger laws than those enacted through referenda initiated by state legislatures.Finally, Part III advances a tentative explanation for the pattern of ineffective post-Kelo reform, in spite of overwhelming public sentiment in favor of such legislation. I contend that the ineffectiveness of post-Kelo reform is largely due to widespread political ignorance. Survey data collected for this Article shows that only 13% of Americans know whether or not their home state has enacted effective post-Kelo eminent domain reform. The political ignorance hypothesis accounts for three otherwise baffling anomalies: the sudden emergence of the backlash after Kelo in spite of the fact that the decision made little change in existing precedent; the passage of ineffective laws by both state and federal legislators; and the fact that post-Kelo laws enacted by popular referendum tended to be much stronger than those enacted by state legislatures.
Vacant and abandoned property is increasingly recognized as a significant barrier to the revitalization of central cities. This study sheds some light on the nature of the property abandonment problem and on current city efforts to address it. It is based upon the findings of a survey of the 200 most populous central cities in the United States, conducted during the summer and fall of 1997, and on follow-up interviews with a portion of the survey population, conducted during the summer of 1998. The findings of the survey and interviews indicate that vacant and abandoned property is perceived as a significant problem by elected and appointed officials in the nation's largest central cities. This type of property affects many aspects of community life, including housing and neighborhood vitality, crime prevention efforts, and commercial district vitality. Single- and multi-family housing, retail properties and vacant land are the most problematic types of vacant and abandoned property for most cities. Cities use a variety of techniques to address this problem, including aggressive code enforcement, tax foreclosure, eminent domain, and cosmetic improvements. One-third of the cities surveyed use a variety of other innovative tools to combat the vacant and abandoned property problem. Nevertheless, current efforts to combat the problem suffer from a number of shortcomings that are described in the article.
Anderson and Wassmer examine the use and effectiveness of local economic development incentives within a specific region, the Detroit metropolitan area. The Detroit area serves as a good example, they say, because of the area's 20-plus year track record of its communities offering the gamut of economic incentives aimed at redirecting economic activity and jobs. The evidence they uncover reveals factors that drive cities not just in this Southeast Michigan area, but nationwide to offer particular types of incentives that are more or less generous than those offered by their neighbors.
Thesis (doctoral)--Vrije Universiteit te Amsterdam, 1956. Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-175) and index.
Since its publication in 1953, this book has become recognized as a seminal study in the field. Floyd Hunter spent more than a year interviewing people from the Negro section, labor element, and professional groups, including the decision makers themselves, in "Regional City," a metropolitan area of half a million. The graphic description of the city and its leaders as they unobtrusively run its life throws new light on the age-old relationship between the governed and the governors.
The turnpike companies of early America (roughly 1795-1840) were very unprofitable, but conferred vast benefits to communities served. Purchasing stock was like paying for the road since such purchases were necessary to complete the road and unprofitability was foreseen. Thus, the turnpikes would appear to have been public goods. Yet, hundreds of turnpikes were provided through voluntary association. The free rider problem was overcome by an almost vigilant impulse to participate and to see that your neighbor did likewise. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.
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Why Are Th ere NIMBYs?
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Suburbification, Segregation, and the Consolidation of the Highway Machine
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Th e Law and Practice of Municipal Home Rule
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Th e Economics of Public Use
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Cityscapes and Capital: Th e Politics of Urban Development Th e " Public Menace " of Blight: Urban Renewal and Private Uses of Eminent Domain
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Th e Development of American Public Policy
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Home Rule Eff ects on State and Local Government Size. Working Paper no. 701, Urban and Regional Analysis Group. Sarkar, Pradip. 1998. Law of Acquisition of Land in India: Including Requisition and Acquisition of Immovable Property
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Eminent Domain and Local Government in North Carolina: Law and Procedure
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Th e Political Economy of Trophy Industrial Recruitment Projects. Paper presented at the 7th Annual State Politics and Policy Annual Conference Eminent Domain: Information About Its Uses and Eff ect on Property Owners and Communities Is Limited
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