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Eminent Domain Legislation Is Signed

Coming to a disadvantaged neighborhood near you is the just signed AB 2492 Alejo, Community Revitalization bill. A replacement to the Redevelopment Agencies that were dissolved in 2012, this bill seeks to establish those agencies for the purpose of helping blighted or disadvantaged communities. There is concern by private property rights organizations that this power will be used for more than blighted communities. Marko Mlikotin, President of the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights, “Nowhere in the United States will politicians have such unfettered power to forcibly seize private property by eminent domain for economic gain. Politically connected developers and politicians will be able to use taxpayer dollars to forcibly seize homes and small businesses in most California neighborhoods. Only California’s wealthiest neighborhoods are exempt from the legislation’s overly broad definition of blight.” In a press release from The Alliance they also state that,　a “Non-partisan analysis conducted by Andrew Chang & Company concluded that State Assembly Bill 2492 (Luis Alejo D-Watsonville) would place over two-thirds (78%) of California’s landmass at risk of condemnation or 121,000 square miles, including 23 counties, 188 cities, more than 400 Census Designated Places (unincorporated communities), and 3,800 U.S. Census Bureau tracts, and could lead to greater government debt.” One of the reasons that Redevelopment Agencies became so unpopular in the past was the use of the power to take property from private landowners to use for other developers use. An article in the National Review warning of the potential for abuse they cite past overreaches as cause for concern. “Redevelopment also imperiled private property. Over a ten-year period, the Institute for Justice identified more than 200 redevelopment projects that authorized eminent domain for private gain.”