Missouri legislators are a step closer to enacting eminent domain reform
Pratt’s committee expected to wrap up public hearings Tuesday night. Before the panel is a bill that would bar government from taking private property solely to increase a community’s tax base and bring in new jobs.Blighted land could be taken for redevelopment, but dwellings would have to show physical signs of deterioration. Farmland and vacant land that has never been developed could not be deemed blighted.
Again, the bill is a good start. There is absolutely no reason local governments should be able to hand private property over to developers if the property is not blighted. The bill in committee still contains loopholes, and should be amended to ban all use of eminent domain for economic development purposes.
There’s a bigger systematic issue at play, however. Aggressive use of tax increment financing and a fragmented sales tax system among St. Louis County’s 91 municipalities have left communities heavily dependent upon economic redevelopment. For example, Rock Hill has bet its future upon Novus’ Market at McKnight project:
The city’s budget, scheduled for approval in April, has been trimmed by about 12 percent.
Rock Hill has no fire chief, no police chief and no city hall. It can’t afford to finish roadwork or start plans for a new city hall, or even to hire workers to fill empty positions.
“We’re just holding our breaths, waiting for this thing to start,” she said.
And when asked what the city would do if the development did not go forward, Morgan was almost speechless.
“Dramatic measures would have to be taken,” she said.
Novus is, of course, the developer whose financial problems led to the collapse of an eminent domain-based Sunset Manor in Sunset Hills, which proposed to tear down 254 mostly non-blighted homes and replace them with a shopping center. The collapse of the project left the property owners in the lurch, and local government officials on the hot seat.
Unless these issues are addressed, cash-starved municipalities will exploit any loopholes in the eminent domain bill, so the legislature must make sure any bill has as few loopholes as possible.
