Business Workshop: No eminent domain for private benefit
“When a neighboring landowner refuses to cooperate with a new real estate development project, developers have often asked local authorities to use their power of eminent domain to seize the land or force the owner to allow the construction of utility lines on their property.
Typically, courts have allowed the public economic benefit of the new development to outweigh the property rights of a single landowner.
But a recent lawsuit should remind businesses that the Property Rights Protection Act (PRPA) of 2006 gave landowners protection from eminent domain actions for the profit of private enterprise.
In the case in question, a real estate developer wanted to build a large residential development but needed to use a neighboring plot of land owned by a nonprofit to run the necessary water and sewage lines. The nonprofit rejected the developer’s offer to pay to run the utility lines across the property.”
Pittsburgh Post Gazette 9 December 2014.