MasterPlanning! The Eminence of Domain

by Tony Chavira

The government can take your land. Yes, it's legal.

Almost all of the Master Plans in the United States have an Eminent Domain expiration date: at some point in the course of human events there were a bunch of empty lots that were owned by the government and the government alone. Legislators thought, "We can do whatever we want with this land: we can make it Main Street U.S.A., we can make it a jail, we can make it a parking lot. Maybe we can do all of those things. Maybe we will do all of those things."

"Eminent Domain" really only refers to federal control over land. Your domain is eminently part of the city/county/state/country you're living it. It's just a natural part of living in a world full of countries. Sometimes eminent domain needs to be exercised, like when you need to add more power lines or slap together a place for the sanitation department to clean up our mess. According to the 5th amendment, if the Big Gov decides to eminent domain-up your land you're supposed to get "reasonable compensation." In fact, this housing slump is the perfect time for the government to step in and take over land like barons. I would! Granted, I've always been a not-so-secret advocate of socialism.

Eminent Domain's a weird sort of law, because there's really no way out of it. Let me show you what I mean:

Let's just say that you get a letter from a government agency that says, "We need your land, and we'll buy it from you." Let's just say it's a "Complete Taking" and they want all of your land (instead of a Partial or Temporary Taking of your land). If your answer is, "No dice, Villaraigosa," then the government agency can actually file a court order to exercise eminent domain (even if the eminent domain expiration date has expired in the city's Master Plan). In court, the Gov. is only required to show that a) they plan on using your property for public utility and b) they tried to buy the land off of you fair and square, but you said no. You're given the chance to respond, but what can you say? "I just bought this place! It's my dream house!" won't really cut it.

So if the Government wins the case, you're forced into a "negotiation" where you've got to settle on a fair-market value for your land. Worst of all, the Government actually pays back your debt with your first payments BEFORE they give you the rest of the money. Okay, sure, now you're debt-free, but you also have no collateral for a new place and only a fraction of the money you'd need if you wanted to buy a new place. Of course, this is all based on the outcome of a court case so you can appeal over and over again until you have no choice financially except to cave to the Government's demands.

But there's another way you can see this:

You get a letter in the mail and it says, "We need your land, and we'll buy it from you." First thing you think: "I know they're loaded, how much can I get from selling to the Gov?" "Fair Value," legally-speaking, is the highest amount of money a buyer would pay for your property once it's assessed. In fact, you can use an independent assessment for your property value so that you don't feel like the government's in control.

But what if you're running a business from your house ... let's just say it's an eBay Store. When the Government needs you to move you're going to be screwed for a few weeks while you get yourself back on your feet. Well, eminent domain includes "Just Compensation," and the Government will pay you back for all the money you're losing while you look for another place. Interestingly enough, some states allow you to receive payments for Temporary or Partial land use, so you might not have to move and they'll pay you to use your land until they'rea done, almost as if the government was renting your property from you. So you wouldn't have to move AND they'd pay to stick around.

Really, there are tons of instances of eminent domain and the way in which it is used varies from state to state. But we all know that government's malleable to the wants of both voters and businesses, so naturally so is eminent domain.

There's always the potential of the city of L.A. to go into an area, let's say Koreatown, and declare eminent domain. Get a few judges on their side and they can control everything. Then they rebuild and restructure the communities until they're gorgeous, walkable and amazing. A veritable modern utopia of MasterPlanning! Conversely, the city of L.A. can declare eminent domain in Koreatown and literally give a single developer/contractor the job to do whatever they want with the space. There've been a lot of shady cases of stuff like this, which isn't always necessarily bad or good but just stupidly blatant insider deals.

It's a hard decision to make, though: if you know that the local economy will boom if you give Costco and Wal-Mart control over a huge portion of land, what do you do? Isn't it better for everyone to just give it to them? Won't it appreciate the property value and help the people living there develop a stronger community? This is actually another somewhat insidious notion: if Wal-Mart had to go through the government to get an eminent domain ruling, it probably means that they already offered "Fair Value" money to the residents and were rejected. So like sniveling little weasels, they went running to the government to take the land and let them use it, citing "economic growth stimulus" as their façade-reason. In fact, this happened in Ohio: the city tried to force out residents so that some jerk developer could use the land for "expensive condominiums." They almost got away with it too, bless you Mike Wallace.

The chances that your city will flat out take your property are pretty low. But if they do, you need to be prepared because you don't want to sink all of your life savings into appeals and lawyer fees. Check out Castle Coalition, who are basically an angry group of concerned citizens who fight eminent domain abuse. And read your local newspapers; there's always a new story about where eminent domain is going on, either for the betterment and detriment of a community. If it's fair and clean, it can really clean up a blighted community. If not, you better be ready to fight because it's literally coming to your door.