Defense against eminant domain??

[Richard]

With some of the prior conversations about eminent domain, I’ve been wondering about how one might possibly defend against a developer that’s bent on getting your land one way or another.

Setup: I’ve attached a pic of our area and tried to put a rough outline on the land. You will see above the circled land, a decent sized cove. This is the last natural barrier between the developer & us, aside from one (otherwise unwilling) land owner who has admitted that if/when they get to him, he’ll have to sell because he moved here to get AWAY from that stuff. All the land between line & water is owned by TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority). The developer owns to about where the arrow is based on what I’m told, perhaps not that close.

General history: This is as best as I know, the largest single parcel in this area. Over the last 8/10 years there have been a multitude of people trying to buy it. My guess is they are all related.

Once, the adjacent county’s sheriff came to my father in law and said they wanted to buy it (the neighboring county??? Makes sense to me??) so they could put a firing range on it. I guess the neighboring county (Knox / Knoxville) couldn’t afford their own firing range, or perhaps even an INDOOR one? They need to buy primo land on a lake with a retirement community across the water for their firing range??? Ya right

Another couple times, they came & dickered on price

Time before last time, they came & wanted to buy our houses too. Hmm.. last I looked, “I” never had a for sale sign up... My price just went up STEEPLY.

Last time “they” came, they have a NEW buyer (sounds like Procter & Gamble commercial with a “new & improved buyer). This mystery buyer is from out of town, but he won’t want our houses this time. (this time??... was that a Freudian slip??) They were bending over BACKWARDS telling me what a fantastic neighbor this buyer would be. He wants to keep the land JUST as it is and will be our perfect neighbor.

Hmm... well if he wants to keep the land exactly like it is, why don’t we sell him a 2 acre lot for his house & save him all that money? How do they know he’ll be a great neighbor?

Ok, so I’m cynical as all get out with these people. I might add that THREE times they’ve been out to look at the land, I know in fact, they’ve been looking for the developer who’s on the other side of that cove, working our way. I merely suspect the other times have also been related.

Ok, so here’s my question now that you have a bit of perspective & idea of how much I trust them.


I won’t be surprised that they go for the eminent domain routing since increased tax dollars will be “for the greater good”. My father in law has in his hands, a plat map where 10 years ago they hired someone to look at how many lots THEY can develop on the land.

Does it seem reasonable that if a developer talks town hall into condeming your land so they can steal it to develop it, that if you already have a development plan in the works, HIS efforts might be neutralized?

Seems reasonable to me that town hall can’t use his development as an excuse if we have one already, that we’re working on??

(I might need to get it updated however)

Any thoughts if that might be a reasonable push back against them?

 

[riptides]

What are the laws in Tennessee regaring eminent domain?

Here in Virgina, since the Supreme court ruled it was a local issue, our representatives at the county and state levels were bombarded with inquiries. I beleive a number of them are actually trying to formulate some legislation (or so they say) to make sure that developers cannot use eminent domain to their benefit.
The wording we hear is that developers do not constitute "public" matters.

I would check with your local governing authorities to see how eminent domain is currently handled in your area.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[turnkey4099]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What are the laws in Tennessee regaring eminent domain?

Here in Virgina, since the Supreme court ruled it was a local issue, our representatives at the county and state levels were bombarded with inquiries. I beleive a number of them are actually trying to formulate some legislation (or so they say) to make sure that developers cannot use eminent domain to their benefit.
The wording we hear is that developers do not constitute "public" matters.

I would check with your local governing authorities to see how eminent domain is currently handled in your area.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

Yep, was an article in the paper yesterday. The USSC ruling specifically said that states could make laws restricting its use. Many already have them and more have laws being proposed.

IMO that USSC decision was one of the biggest, boneheadedness decisions they ever issued.

Harry K

 

[milkman]

If they want it, they'll get it.

 

[Michigan_Mike]

If you have a local land preservation trust, you might try to sell, or donate, the development rights to them. That would make the land less desirable to developers. The down side, is that it makes it less valuable on the open market too.

 

[jerrym4]

I have always been intrigued by friendly mortgages. This is the method where you allow someone you trust dearly to hold a mortgage on your property. For example, I could give/allow my brother to hold a 2 million dollar mortgage on my house. The agreement with my brother would be that I'd never pay on the mortgage and he'd release it when I requested.

The reason I have briefly looked into these is because I don't people to realize I have my house paid off. But I'm wondering if a friendly mortgage can help out in this situation as well. Would the value of this friendly mortgage effect the fair market value for eminant domain?

 

[heehaw]

i saw something a lot like this used once, they had the lein holder sign the release papers, "before" they signed the selling papers: then put them in a safe deposit box for use when they where ready. i don't know how it worked out. but it looked like it should work?
heehaw

 

[Junkman]

Just because you over mortgage your property doesn't mean that when the legal entity that has eminent domain rights to take that property has to pay you the inflated mortgage value. They will only pay fair market value, plus a premium if they are so inclined. Most times the taking agency will pay a premium just to stay out of court, because they know that courts cost them money and time. As with most legal documents, they have to stand up to scrutiny and if you were to have a million dollar mortgage on the property, then someone might just ask to see the check where they gave the money to you in exchange. In fact, this tactic might just backfire on you when the Internal Revenue Service were to be wondering what became of the money or decide that the interest should have been reported as income. I have never seen a 0% mortgage.
Possibly a better tactic is to put a restrictive covenant on the property that it can only be used for a specific purpose. Even that could be overruled, but it would take more effort to get the court to overrule the covenant..

 

[JSUnlimited]

Start a cemetary on your property. Shallow graves and some crime scene tape all over the place!

Or start posting radiation hazard signs...and get some of those green glow-sticks that the kids use at night during Halloween and put them all over the place during the evening.....

Then you could get a fake arm attached to your back or head and walk out to offer them a tour while vomiting fake blood. If you do this make sure you rig up a Geiger counter to go way off the scale!!!!!

 

[r0GuE]

Plant some cat tails and get it declared wet lands. Can't hurt the poor duckies... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif