Forced sale of your real estate

PitbullMidwest · Jun 23, 2005

( Determining FMV is often as clear as mud and some things are priceless to those who own the property )

My wife's family lost over half their farm to emanate domain to construct new runways for our airport. Her grandfather did not want to sell so the city "condemned" his cropland and his FMV was based on property of no commercial value instead of rich Iowa farmland. He got 25 cents on the dollar.

This is a very, very bad decision.

Curt

MicroPilot · Jun 23, 2005

Seems i haven't read a single reply that is for this practice.

FMV for the farmland should have been for $,100's of dollars an acre. It would seem to me to be worth that much to the airport.

Alan L. · Jun 23, 2005

I'll not try to hide the fact that I am a conservative Texan. But this ruling is absolutely wrong. It will come down to the fact that the guy with the most money and most powerful lawyers will take the property away from the those less fortunate, for their own enrichment, and at the blessing of the government. No way this should ever happen.

I am seeing right now condemnations for sports stadiums and even WALMARTS! Wrong Wrong Wrong.

Varmintmist · Jun 23, 2005

I posted this up in rural living and I agree with you Alan.

This is insane.

Splain to me where exactly in the constitution it is written that a govt agency can take a good piece of property and resell it to a developer????

Eminant Domain is for highways and airports, known PUBLIC services, not private developers because they MIGHT generate SOME tax revenue.

HomeBrew2 · Jun 23, 2005

Sports stadiums!? They already did that decades ago in LA to build Dodger Stadium ... condemned a whole community (aka Chavez Ravine) /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

froggy · Jun 23, 2005

Guess there will be no stopping Jerry Jones and the "cowboys" now! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

froggy · Jun 23, 2005

If you think this is bad, have you been to any of the Trans-Texas Corridor meetings? If this goes through, there will be thousands of small Texas farms and properties taken through eminent domain by the State of Texas.

jeffinsgf · Jun 23, 2005

( ..... If this goes through, there will be thousands of small Texas farms and properties taken through eminent domain by the State of Texas. )

If it goes through??? This is a Supreme Court decision. It is the law of the land right now. It will get challenged by another case, but until the makeup of the court changes, you'll likely see little in the way of change to today's ruling.

Sigarms · Jun 23, 2005

Ok, I realize that this may sound sort of "radical", but...

If I can put my life in harms way to defend the constitution of the United States and for all of the rights "entitiled" (sp?) for every U.S citizen...

Well... If "Uncle Sam" comes to my "front door" and tells me that I have to give up those rights because someone sees an "opportunity" to make money "off MY land", I will indeed die for my rights.

txdon · Jun 23, 2005

OK, back on tractors - a lot of us tractor owners in Texas were hopping that this Supreme court ruling would help us stop the Mexico to Oklahoma toll road that Spain will control: TTC35. They decided the wrong way. TXDOT will now Eminent Domain a 1200' wide corridor that the Spanish company will have all the rights and franchise business for the next 50 years. That is they will grab 146 acres each mile.
This is a sad day for property owners in America.