House committee unanimously approves eminent domain reform bill
“The House Transportation and Defense Committee has unanimously approved Senate Bill 1309 that would provide additional protection to persons whose property is either seized or condemned under current eminent domain laws. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate on March 5.
“This is an effort that I’ve been working on for the last two legislative sessions,” Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, commented in presenting the bill to the committee. Noting that the bill had broad support from a wide array of organizations including several of the state’s highway districts and the Idaho Farm Bureau, he added, “we believe this bill is about essential fairness to property owners.”
The intent the bill is to ensure that in cases where government agencies change their plans in the process of acquiring or augmenting a piece of private property under the eminent domain laws after they’ve already begun the acquisition process, the property owner would have the ability to recoup the extra costs that he might incur with those changes, should there be any.”
Idaho Reporter 10 March 2014.