BoatBanter.com - OT Florida Eminent Domain Laws

This, by the way, is a STATE law. Who to hell is the governor of that
hell hole anyway? Oh, yeah, Jeb Bush!

Florida: Some see disdain in move to use eminent domain
Florida officials want to relocate 6,000 in blue-collar Riviera Beach
to build a waterfront complex across from high-dollar Palm Beach.
John-Thor Dahlburg, Los Angeles Times
Last update: December 6, 2005 at 10:44 PM
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RIVIERA BEACH, FLA. - It's across the inlet from Palm Beach, but this
town -- mostly black and blue-collar, with a large industrial and
warehouse district -- could be a continent away from the Fortune 500
and Rolls-Royce set.

But Riviera Beach's fortunes may soon change.

In what has been called the largest eminent-domain case in the nation,
the mayor and other elected leaders want to move about 6,000 residents,
tear down their houses and use the emptied 400-acre site to build a
waterfront yachting and residential complex for the well-to-do.

The goal, Mayor Michael D. Brown said during a public meeting in
September, is to "forever change the landscape" in this municipality of
about 32,500. The $1 billion plan should generate jobs and move Riviera
Beach's economy out of the doldrums, local leaders have said.

Opponents call the plan a government-sanctioned land grab that benefits
private developers and the wealthy.

"What they mean is that the view I have is too good for me and should
go to some millionaire," said Martha Babson, 60, a house painter who
lives near the Intracoastal Waterway.

"This is a reverse Robin Hood," said state Rep. Ronald L. Greenstein, a
Coconut Creek Democrat who serves on a state legislative committee
making recommendations on how to strengthen safeguards on private
property.

With many Americans sensitized to eminent-domain cases after a
much-discussed ruling by the Supreme Court in June, property-rights
organizations have been pointing to redevelopment plans in this Palm
Beach County town as proof that laws must be changed to protect
homeowners and businesses from the schemes of politicians.

"Unfortunately, taking poorer folks' homes and turning them into
higher-end development projects is all too routine in Florida and
throughout the country," said Scott G. Bullock, a senior attorney for
the Institute for Justice, based in Washington, D.C. "What
distinguishes Riviera Beach is the sheer scope of the project, and the
number of people it displaces."

In June, a divided U.S. Supreme Court approved the plan of New London,
Conn., to force some homeowners to sell their properties for a private
development that was supposed to generate more jobs and tax revenue.

That ruling has led to moves in Congress and at least 35 states,
including Florida, to restrict the use of eminent-domain seizures of
private property.

'Blighted' land may be seized

In Florida, the law allows local officials to take private land for
redevelopment if they deem it "blighted." In May 2001, a study
conducted for the city found that "slum and blighted conditions"
existed in about a third of Riviera Beach and that redevelopment was
necessary "in the interest of public health, safety, morals and
welfare."

A skeptical Babson, who lives in a single-story, concrete-block home
painted aqua that she shares with parrots and a dog, did her own
survey. For three months, she walked the streets of Riviera Beach
photographing houses classified as "dilapidated" or "deteriorated" by
specialists hired by the city.

The official study, she said, was riddled with errors and
misclassifications. Lots inventoried as "vacant" (one of 14 criteria
that allow Florida cities or counties to declare a neighborhood
blighted) actually had homes on them built in 1997, she said. One house
deemed "dilapidated," she found, was two years old.

Mayor Brown and Floyd T. Johnson, executive director of the Riviera
Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, did not respond to repeated
requests from the Los Angeles Times for an interview.

The redevelopment agency's website says the plan will "create a city
respected for its community pride and purpose, and reshape it into a
most desirable urban [place] to live, work, shop and relax for its
residents, business and visitors."

In past media interviews, Brown has said that his city was in dire need
of jobs and that if officials weren't allowed to resort to eminent
domain to spur growth, Riviera Beach could perish