Eminent Domain Legislation Sent to Gov.

Jim --
 
There are so many laws & regulations that, piecemeal, affect the use of
farmland, as indicated in a Local Government Commission Report found
online at: http://www.lgc.state.pa.us/agreport.html
 
I note in Senator Piccola's April 25th press release (see:
http://www.piccola.org/) that this statement is made regarding the
involved organizations:

        The Property Rights Protection Act has been supported by a broad
group of organizations including the Institute for Justice, who has
called it "the most comprehensive reform bill in the country." Also
supporting the legislation are the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau,
Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities, National Federation of
Independent Business, Pennsylvania Family Institute, and the
Pennsylvania Builders Association. Representative Glen Grell (R-87) is
the sponsor of a companion measure and was instrumental in spearheading
Senate Bill 881 through the House of Representatives.

Certainly these statewide groups -- which, significantly, did not
include our PA Bar Association (even though Jeff Piccola is a practicing
lawyer and Glen Grell had practiced law in central PA) -- would know the
effects of existing farmland protection laws and integrate them into
this proposal.
 
As to the role of the Agricultural Lands Condemnation Approval Board
(ALCAB), at first glace, it appears its jurisdiction has been overtaken
by the broader protections of Section 204 of the bill regarding private
business uses, since the PA Farm Bureau was primarily concerned about
private development and blighted area redevelopment issues. Could it be
that deletion of Section 207 occurred for the benefit of the
Commonwealth & PennDOT for its public purpose condemnations?
 
If the bill is signed, it should be discussed at the upcoming Section
Retreat, don't you think?
 
-- Neil Hendershot
 
-----Original Message-----
From: James E Davis [mailto:jdavis3_at_ptd.net]
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 3:48 PM
To: Hendershot, Neil E.; realproperty_at_list.pabar.org
Subject: Re: [realproperty] Eminent Domain Legislation Sent to Gov.

        Neil: I just looked briefly at the legislation that you posted
which is pending the Governor's approval on the changes to the eminent
domain law. I noticed that section 207, dealing with Agricultural lands
has been lined out. Does this mean that a condemnor would no longer need
the approval of the agricultural lands condemnation board, even though
the property has been designated as part of an Agricultural area by the
local township? This is an important matter in rural areas, because I
have been told by other authority and municipal solictors that the Board
almost never approves these condemnations. The Agricultural area
securtiy law also has the same provision. Will this also be amended or
deleted? Thanks for the heads up. Jim Davis, Tunkhannock

                ----- Original Message -----
                From: Hendershot, Neil E.
<mailto:neh_at_goldbergkatzman.com>
                To: realproperty_at_list.pabar.org
                Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 11:45 AM
                Subject: [realproperty] Eminent Domain Legislation Sent
to Gov.

                Senate Bill 881, Printer's No.1738
<http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/BT/2005/0/SB0881P1738.HTM> ,
was presented to the Governor on April 26, 2006, for signature. The
proposed Act would amend Title 26 (Eminent Domain) of the Pennsylvania
Consolidated Statutes, providing for limitations on the use of eminent
domain; and making a related repeal.
                 
                The final bill can be found online at:
http://www2.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/BT/2005/0/SB0881P1738.pdf
                Its legislative history can be found online at:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/BH/2005/0/SB0881.HTM
                 
                For an article about the new Eminent Domain
legislation,entitled "Limits for Pa.'s eminent domain -- The Senate
approved stricter guidelines for taking property", see:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/14428103.htm
<http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/14428103.htm> The article is
copied below. According to the article, it is not clear whether or not
Gov. Rendell will sign the legislation into law. However, the
Pennsylvania Realtors Association appears to support the legislation,
according to its policy statement found online at:
http://www.parealtor.org/content/SenateApprovesPiccolaEminentDomainLegis
lation.asp
                 
                
                
________________________________

                Sent by: Neil E. Hendershot, Esq.

                Goldberg Katzman, P.C., 320 Market Street, Strawberry
Square, P.O. Box 1268, Harrisburg, PA 17108-1268

                Ofc: 717-234-4161; Fax: 717-234-6808; Email:
neh_at_goldbergkatzman.com <mailto:neh_at_goldbergkatzman.com> ; Website:
www.goldbergkatzman.com

                
________________________________

                 
                Limits for Pa.'s eminent domain -- The Senate approved
stricter guidelines for taking property
                 
                By Diane Mastrull and Amy Worden

                Inquirer Staff Writers

                In an effort to better shield home and business owners
from government land grabs, the Pennsylvania Senate gave final
legislative approval yesterday to new restrictions on the use of eminent
domain for private economic development.

                As part of a compromise to get the bill through, the
measure would not apply to some property already under the threat of
condemnation. These exemptions are intended to protect revitalization
work in Philadelphia, Norristown and Chester.

                Still, some of the harshest critics of Pennsylvania's
eminent domain laws praised the unanimously passed Senate bill because
it would replace subjective criteria for condemnation with more
quantitative measures.

                A spokesman said Gov. Rendell wanted to see how well the
legislation - which includes a separate bill dealing with reimbursements
to owners of seized property - "balances the rights of property owners
with the development needs of communities" before deciding whether to
sign them.

                Elizabeth G. Hersh, executive director of the Housing
Alliance of Pennsylvania, in Glenside, said the bill represented "a lot
of effort put into building consensus" as competing measures bounced
back and forth in the General Assembly.

                Pennsylvania becomes the 18th state to have passed
legislation to curtail - if not prohibit - the use of eminent domain
since June, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

                That was when the U.S. Supreme Court, with its ruling in
Kelo v. City of New London, triggered nationwide concern that any
property was vulnerable to condemnation. The justices found that the
Connecticut city could force the sale of houses and businesses in a
neighborhood to make way for private economic development even without
the "blight" designation that usually is required.

                By the end of the year, legislative efforts had been
launched in Congress and more than 30 states to try to prevent the kind
of property seizures the high court had endorsed. Among those are
pending bills to limit eminent domain in New Jersey.

                In Pennsylvania, the focal point of months of debate has
been how to define blight and how much of it needs to exist before an
area can be designated a redevelopment zone and subject to eminent
domain. The blight definitions have been often criticized as too vague
and subjective. One of the region's most publicized debates over this
issue flared in Ardmore over a failed attempt to use "blight" to justify
a controversial revitalization project there.

                Under the new bill, specific conditions such as a threat
to health and safety, abandonment and tax delinquency would constitute
blight.

                "Before this bill, Pennsylvania law allowed condemnation
of virtually any area by labeling it blighted," said Sen. Jeffrey
Piccola (R., Dauphin), who wrote the bill. "Now we've tightened the
definition of blight so that it applies to areas with real, objective
concrete harms to the public. It can no longer be used to take ordinary
neighborhoods for private development or to take neighborhoods just
because the people who live there have less money."

                Though she remains concerned that those who have the
most difficulty finding housing - people of low income - are often
"victimized" by eminent domain and the uprooting it forces, Hersh said
the legislature's efforts this week to "tighten up" the definition of
blight are "a step forward."

                Meanwhile, Joel Johnson, assistant executive director of
the Redevelopment Authority of Montgomery County, was relieved yesterday
that Pennsylvania lawmakers had responded to the lobbying efforts of his
agency and others to grant exemptions for older communities, such as
Norristown, where revitalization is sputtering to life and eminent
domain has been used to acquire property for a downtown parking garage.

                Under the new legislation, the blight designation in
effect in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Norristown and other places might
not meet the new legislative definition, but it would be permitted
through 2012.

                At 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia
coalition of anti-sprawl advocates who consider eminent domain a
valuable redevelopment tool, president Janet Milkman was not ecstatic
but was far more content than she's been.

                "It was a valiant effort to take a very powerful tool of
government and make it more fair," Milkman said.

                In December, she denounced an earlier version of the
Senate bill as "detrimental to the state as a whole and particularly to
our older communities."

________________________________

                Contact staff writer Diane Mastrull at 610-313-8095 or
dmastrull_at_phillynews.com.
                 
                 
Received on Mon May 01 2006 - 13:56:29 PDT