CCTA Uses Eminent Domain to Acquire Properties
“Twice in recent months, the Chittenden County Transportation Authority has been thwarted in its attempts to buy property in Burlington that it claims is crucial to its long-term growth. An electrical contracting business that abuts CCTA’s headquarters in the South End has refused to sell. And while the downtown Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was amenable to a deal, the agency has had problems securing approval from church officials authorized to sell land where CCTA wants to build a new “transit station.”
So the nonprofit bus service, whose public image was battered during a two-week driver strike last winter, has quietly resorted to a controversial tactic: It has taken the entities to court, invoking eminent domain to try to force them to sell.”
Davis, Mark. Seven Days 27 August 2014.