Eminent Domain: Election Results

The battles over property rights rage on.  So far, the high-water mark for owners’ rights appears to be the limitation of eminent domain powers to public use of property, such as roads or rail lines.  Something new is rising, however, in Arizona.

As I wrote previously, this fall voters in a number of states got to vote on measures to restrict the scope of eminent domain powers available to local governments.   Of those, 10 passed the proposals.  Including these intiatives and referrenda, a total of over 40 states have passed laws restricting eminent domain in reaction to the Supreme Court’s Kelo v. City of New London case. 

In the two measures that failed (California and Idaho), eminent domain restrictions were combined with stronger language requiring governments to compensate landowners for laws or regulation that diminish property values.  These would have required compensation to owners in the event of, for example, changes in zoning that affected property values.  Here in Washington state, a standalone initiative just dealing with compensation for land use laws failed at the polls. 

On the other hand, Arizona’s successful eminent domain initiative did include language requiring compensation for certain land use regulations. Local governing bodies in Arizona are still trying to figure out the impact of the new law on their ability to manage land use, and on their budgets.  The states are the "laboratories of democracy," and a big experiment has started in Arizona.