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Eminent domain limits become law

Doyle signs bill restricting land acquisitions to public service projects

By MICHELE DERUS
mderus@journalsentinel.com
Posted: March 30, 2006

Wisconsinites couldn't be forced from their homes to make room for nicer development under a bill that Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law Thursday.

The bill, which sailed into passage on bipartisan support, restricts state and local governments' eminent domain powers to their classic intent - acquiring land for public service projects.

The new law "is important to ensure that eminent domain laws are used the way they were intended," the governor said. It bans government from seizing unblighted private property simply to make way for nicer private development, and defines blighted housing as abandoned or in an area with a crime rate three times higher than the community average.

Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager hailed the law's passage, saying it "will help protect private citizens' homes, farms and businesses from well-heeled special interests that may unduly influence local and county officials."

Wisconsin is among 40 states moving to reassert their policy on government seizure of private property after a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a Connecticut community's condemnation of modest homes for pricier private development in New London. The ruling triggered a national uproar among homeowners and small businesses.

"The issue is whether the government can just take something and give it to someone else," Steven Anderson, a staffer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va., said in an interview last week. "Every state that is in session is considering this issue. Everyday people from all walks of life want serious common-sense reform."

Quick action in state

State Rep. Mary L. Williams (R-Medford), the bill's chief sponsor, said lawmakers moved quickly to forestall anyone capitalizing here on the Supreme Court ruling. State Sen. David Zien (R-Eau Claire), the measure's chief Senate sponsor, said protective action came just in time.

"We got a couple hints at some people planning things," he said in an interview last week. "But they were very reluctant to proceed under the circumstances."


 
From the March 31, 2006 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
 

Case Law:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._New_London

Wisconsin League of Wisconsin Municipalities:

http://www.lwm-info.org/legal/faq/faqindex.html#eminent

Wisconsin State Law Library

http://wsll.state.wi.us/topic/realprop.html

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/pubs/wb/06wb1.pdf

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