Eminent Domain Report

On November 24, 2014, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a proposed rule that would amend the regulations governing how Federal grant recipients acquire, manage, and dispose of real property.  Thus, the proposed rule, if it becomes final, has the potential to impact the daily operations of transportation agencies all across the United States.  Some of the more notable proposed revisions include:

• Broader authority for public agencies to proceed with construction contract bidding when the agency has not acquired all real property interests needed for the ...

Agencies acquiring private property for a public project conduct thorough investigations to determine whether the property has environmental contamination.  If contamination is found, the question arises whether evidence of the contamination will be admissible in the eminent domain proceeding.  In California the answer is yes, based on a single case that involved evidence of remediation costs introduced by both sides without objection.  In Redevelopment Agency of Pomona v. Thrifty Oil Company, 4 Cal.App.4^th 469 (1992), the Agency sought to condemn a parcel owned by Thrifty that ...

On November 4, 2014, San Benito County voters went to the poles to vote on Measure J, the measure designed to prohibit hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, and related gas and oil extraction activities, as well as other "high-intensity petroleum operations," including acid well stimulation and cyclic steam injection. The measure also banned any new gas or oil drilling activity - even conventional, low-intensity activity - in areas the county zoned for residential or rural land use.

With 59% of the vote, supporters approved Measure J in an effort to protect the local environment ...

According to Robin Richard’s article, "Needles May Exercise Eminent Domain to make way for Highway 95 Connector," the City of Needles is considering adopting Resolutions of Necessity to acquire 14 parcels for its long-planned I-40 connector project.   The City will be acquiring permanent road easements and temporary construction easements of various sizes.  The impacted properties include residential, commercial and motel uses.  Some of the acquisitions are fairly small, but as my colleague Brad Kuhn recently posted, even these sliver acquisitions can have impacts to the ...

The question now is, is the court's statement merely a bump in the road or a roadblock?  The United States filed the eminent domain action seeking to condemn certain access rights so it could increase its profitability when it sold vacant federal land in Alameda County, California.  In its complaint and declaration of taking, the United States alleged that it needed to condemn the property interest for the "continuing operations" of the Alameda Federal Center.  In support of the taking, the United States relied on the General Service Administration's general authority.  The federal ...

As traffic continues to increase and roadways become more congested, California's transportation infrastructure needs to keep up.  While there has been a concerted focus on alternative methods of transportation (such as rail, bikeways, etc.), street and highway widenings are still a major focus of local government agencies.  The County of Sacramento is no different, as it embarks on the Hazel Avenue and Fair Oaks Boulevard road widening projects.  These street improvement projects typically require right-of-way acquisition, and while the acquisitions are typically small ...

The Self-Help Counties Coalition's 2014 Focus on the Future Conference is just around the corner.  This year, it is taking place in Santa Clara on November 16-18.  I will be presenting on the topic "Precondemnation Planning & Early Acquisition Efforts: Best Practices to Acquire Right of Way Without Blowing Your Project's Budget" on Tuesday, November 18 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  My panel includes Bijal Patel at Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Chip Willett at Dokken Engineering, Rob Caringella at Jones, Roach & Caringella, and Joey Mendoza at Overland, Pacific & ...

In late September, Governor Brown signed into law AB 229 and SB 628, which are intended to finance public capital facilities or other specified projects of communitywide significance previously financed by redevelopment agencies.

AB 229 and SB 628 both seek to expand existing but underutilized Infrastructure Financing Districts (Financing Districts).

AB 229 authorizes the creation of Infrastructure and Revitalization Financing Districts (Revitalization Districts) by the legislative body of a city or county[1] to finance projects of communitywide significance pursuant ...

Most people understand the basic concept of eminent domain: the government takes someone’s private property and pays the owner just compensation for the taking.  Sometimes, however, the government takes (or damages) private property without filing an eminent domain action.  These situations end up as inverse condemnation cases, where the property owner sues the government for compensation for the taking.

Assuming the court concludes that the government has indeed taken or damaged property, the end result in an inverse condemnation case is about the same as any other eminent ...

In a published decision, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District rejected the California Coastal Commission's ("Commission") collateral estoppel argument and found that there is no rational nexus or rough proportionality between the work proposed by an applicant on a private residence a mile from the coast and a lateral public access easement imposed by the Commission as a condition of approval.  Accordingly, the easement condition amounted to an unconstitutional taking.  (Bowman v. Cal. Coastal Com. (Oct. 23, 2014).)

In 2002, the property owner of ...