EDITORIAL: Council to focus on more fabricated strife
“Miller argues that downtown home-owners are frightened because the city might need their properties for an anticipated downtown arena, stadium and Olympics museum he opposes. The desired projects are part of City for Champions, which would also build a new Air Force Academy visitors center and assist with a state-of-the-art sports medicine clinic at a new branch of the University of Colorado Medical School.
The law would limit city government’s authority to take property, through the courts, for anything other than “traditional public purposes.” Those include transportation and infrastructure.
It sounds wonderful. The councilman wants to save ordinary citizens from “crony capitalists” who occupy a smoke-filled room at City Hall. If that were the case, we would happily cheer him on. Eminent domain should be the final option, even for projects that unquestionably fulfill public needs. Most good people hate condemnation, but without it society cannot build roads and pipelines that traverse private property over tens, hundreds or thousands of miles.”
The Gazette 15 January 2014.