Stopping the abuses of eminent domain

By Jason Crowell

This week I advanced legislation greatly benefiting property owners in Missouri. As chairman of the Senate Pensions, Veterans' Affairs and General Laws committee, I crafted a substitute version of House Bill 1944, which modifies the state's eminent domain laws.

The version of eminent domain reform that the House passed earlier this month did not go far enough to stop eminent domain abuse. It was favored by developers and others who rely on eminent domain. My version that was approved Wednesday in committee is the strongest pro-property owner legislation to come before the legislature this year.

The most significant change I made was regarding the use of eminent domain to take property for economic development purposes. The version of House Bill 1944 that the committee received prohibited condemning authorities from taking private property "solely" for economic development purposes. I amended the bill by changing the word "solely" to "predominantly."

The word "solely" is problematic because developers could easily argue that their projects aren't completely or exclusively economic development projects.

With this one change, we can now ensure that eminent domain is not used for projects in which the potential for an economic boost outweighs any other purposes. This will prevent homes from being bulldozed so a shopping center can be built, but it will still enable run-down abandoned buildings to be turned into public libraries or schools.

I also included language that changes the judicial process for private-property owners who contest the government's use of eminent domain. Current law forces courts to defer to the condemning authority, meaning the one taking the property, if the issue is "fairly debatable." This means that the burden of proof is on the property owner, not on the condemning authority who initiated the taking in the first place.

The new measure would instead require the condemning authority to prove its motivations are legitimate and in the best interest of the public, rather than based on claims of increasing economic development.

I also added an amendment to more clearly define "just compensation." Before the property owner is paid for the seized property, multiple factors would be taken into account, including fair market value, availability and cost of comparable property, willingness of the owner to sell, heritage value and the costs of relocation and replacement.

The other pro-property owner change I made has to do with the term "blight." The version that came over from the House enabled developers to blight property if the area surrounding the property was blighted. I changed this to require that each individual parcel of land must be found blighted in order for it to be taken using eminent domain. The measure also shields farmland from being considered blighted.

There is no more awesome power that government has than to take a person's home. Missouri homeowners, farmers and small businesses deserve a law that does more than provide a smokescreen for eminent domain abuse. We need to return the application of eminent domain laws to their original intent, and my legislation does just that.

Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau represents the 27th District in the Missouri Senate.