How Massachusetts gets sports stadiums right
“THE USE OF eminent domain powers to make way for sports stadiums is always controversial. An article in the latest edition of the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review heaps praise on the way Massachusetts has chosen to handle the thorny issue.
Steve Chen, an editor at the review, argues that eminent domain law has tilted too far toward the interests of sports franchise owners since a 2008 court decision (Goldstein v. Pataki) cleared the way for the highly controversial Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, where the Brooklyn Nets now play. That ruling, he explains, construed legitimate uses of eminent domain so widely that “the burden of proving that a stadium project has no public purpose at all is insurmountable” for people trying to prevent their land from being seized.
Massachusetts, by contrast, uses a case-by-case evaluation system that Chen says protects citizens from improper land seizures while also ensuring that stadium projects with real public benefit go forward.”
Hartnett, Kevin. Boston.com 29 June 2013.