EMINENT DOMAIN APPEARS TO BE ON VERMONT GAS’ SIDE
“If Vermont Gas Systems does move forward with eminent domain
proceedings against Addison County landowners to secure necessary easements to build its proposed natural gas pipeline, it will have both state statute and recent precedents on its side.
The Canadian-owned utility sent letters to nine Monkton homes last month stating that if an agreement on a right-of-way easement could not be reached, the utility would have no choice but to begin the process of eminent domain.
Eminent domain is the process by which a government seizes private land for public use. It is enshrined in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which mandates that the government pay landowners just compensation for property it appropriates.
The basis for Vermont’s eminent domain law can be found in the state constitution. Chapter I, Section II states that private property is subservient to public uses, provided that “whenever any particular man’s property is taken for the use of the public, the owner ought to receive an equivalent in money.””
Despart, Zach. Addison Independent 2 March 2014.