Should CDOT pay for its 22-year mistake with eminent domain?
“The Colorado Supreme Court recently ruled that for the past 22 years, the Colorado Department of Transportation has unlawfully condemned land for highway widening and improvement projects throughout the state. But several attorneys familiar with…
Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority director out after just two months
“Kitty Clemens is out as executive director of the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority after just two months on the job. Urban Renewal Authority board members and a top city government official said Thursday that…
Big Thompson Canyon residents fear eminent domain
“When Dianne and Lyle Honstein received a letter from the Colorado Department of Transportation earlier this month, they began to panic. One word in particular from the letter stood out to them: acquisition. It was…
Littleton City Council moves to abolish its urban renewal authority
“Municipalities have been overtly abusing the broad authority given them under Colorado’s urban renewal law for decades. What was originally intended to address the problems stemming from people living in sub-standard housing amidst squalor is…
A window into the exploding power of eminent domain
“Five years ago, when the state of Texas passed new rules governing the use of eminent domain — the power that allows governments and corporations to take private land for public use — it had…
Bethlehem planners: lot next to rundown ex-Goodman store also blighted
“The Bethlehem Planning Commission, which had declared the former Goodman Furniture blighted this spring, now wants to declare the gravel lot next it blighted. Planners on Thursday agreed that the 3,774-square-foot property, now fenced off,…
Atlantic City to sell or seize 500 abandoned buildings
“Selling hundreds of abandoned buildings is Atlantic City’s latest effort to raise money for its troubled finances and fight off a threatened state takeover. Atlantic City plans to take possession of nearly 500 abandoned buildings…
Couple wins eminent domain case against VDOT – $3,133,130 verdict
“A Botetourt County jury entered a verdict ordering the Virginia Department of Transportation to pay $3.13 million to a couple whose land was condemned for highway purposes. VDOT took seven acres of Bland and Betty…
Floating-house ban should stay in place
“When Tennessee Valley Authority reservoirs were built on private property, taken through eminent domain “for the public good,” those reservoirs became public property. In 2005-2006, 98 percent of the public told TVA through its public…
Gypsum using eminent domain to secure riverfront acreage used by biomass plant
“The Town of Gypsum is using its power of eminent domain to force the operator Colorado’s first biomass electric plant to sell 69 acres along the Eagle River that the town wants for open space,…