I just spoke with Sen. Piccola's Office regarding SB 881 and HB 2054.
Fred Cabell explained that both bills will make up the Eminent Domain
Code upon their passage. Section 207 was deleted from SB 881 but is
included in HB 2054. SB 881 is substantive in nature, HB 2054
procedural except for the inclusion of section 207. Hope this helps.
Steven B. Loux, Esq.
PBA Legislative Counsel
717-238-6715 x2246
________________________________
From: realproperty-bounce_at_list.pabar.org
[mailto:realproperty-bounce_at_list.pabar.org] On Behalf Of Kogan, Arnold
B.
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 4:55 PM
To: Kogan, Arnold B.; James E Davis; Hendershot, Neil E.;
realproperty_at_list.pabar.org
Cc: mroneill_at_pfb.com
Subject: [realproperty] Re: Eminent Domain Legislation Sent to Gov.
I noted the companion House Bill 2054, Printer's No. 3848, passed by the
House and Senate, and also before the Governor for signature does
contain the language of section 207 without being stricken out.
Assuming both bills are signed by the Governor, section 207 would become
law. This is consistent with the news release of the Pennsylvania Farm
Bureau at
http://www.pfb.com/media-center/news-releases/april-26-em-domain.htm
which states:
The bills will impose additional requirements for review and approval of
proposed condemnations of farms to ensure governments do not go beyond
the bill's limitation of eminent domain powers.
Arnie
Arnold B. Kogan
Goldberg Katzman, PC
320E Market Street, 3rd Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101-2225
Phone: (717) 234-4161, Ext. 3159
FAX: (717) 234-6808
Email: abk_at_goldbergkatzman.com
This message is confidential, intended only for the named recipient(s)
and may contain information that is privileged, attorney work product or
exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the
intended recipient(s), you are notified that the dissemination,
distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you
receive this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please
notify the sender by telephone at (717) 234-4161, Ext. 3159 or by email
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other than the named recipient(s) is not a waiver of any
attorney-client, work product, or other applicable privilege. Thank
you.
-----Original Message-----
From: realproperty-bounce_at_list.pabar.org
[mailto:realproperty-bounce_at_list.pabar.org] On Behalf Of Kogan, Arnold
B.
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 4:24 PM
To: James E Davis; Hendershot, Neil E.;
realproperty_at_list.pabar.org
Subject: [realproperty] Re: Eminent Domain Legislation Sent to
Gov.
I noted section 207of Senate Bill 881, Session of 2005, was
added by Printer's No. 1402, remained in Printer's No. 1414, but then
was struck in the final version, Printer's No. 1738, but all the
definitions relating to "agricultural" or its derivatives were retained
in section 202 of the bill. I wonder if this deletion was intentional.
Maybe someone on the Senate Judiciary Committee on otherwise connected
with the drafting of this bill can enlighten us.
Arnie
Arnold B. Kogan
Goldberg Katzman, PC
320E Market Street, 3rd Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101-2225
Phone: (717) 234-4161, Ext. 3159
FAX: (717) 234-6808
Email: abk_at_goldbergkatzman.com
This message is confidential, intended only for the named
recipient(s) and may contain information that is privileged, attorney
work product or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are
not the intended recipient(s), you are notified that the dissemination,
distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you
receive this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please
notify the sender by telephone at (717) 234-4161, Ext. 3159 or by email
at abk_at_goldbergkatzman.com <mailto:abk_at_goldbergkatzman.com> , and
immediately delete this email from your computer. Receipt by anyone
other than the named recipient(s) is not a waiver of any
attorney-client, work product, or other applicable privilege. Thank
you.
-----Original Message-----
From: realproperty-bounce_at_list.pabar.org
[mailto:realproperty-bounce_at_list.pabar.org] On Behalf Of James E Davis
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 3:48 PM
To: Hendershot, Neil E.; realproperty_at_list.pabar.org
Subject: [realproperty] Re: 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 Wed May 03 2006 - 13:17:35 PDT
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