Redevelopment Authorities (and Their Eminent Domain Abuses)
Resurrected in California
Better hope your city doesn’t think your property would look better
as a Bed, Bath & Beyond
Scott
Shackford
Sep. 23, 2015 Reason.com
Chalk up a new win for municipal central planners and the
cronies who benefit from them in California.
Gov. Jerry Brown, who famously killed off California’s corrupt, land-stealing
redevelopment agencies a few years back, has signed into law AB 2, which resurrects them under
new rules.
This means once again California
cities will be able to seize private property to hand over to private
developers, all in the name of “improving” their communities. And it deliberately targets poor communities.
Among the thresholds for a city to designate an area to
start meddling (further) via a special redevelopment authority: an annual
median household income less than 80 percent annual median income; unemployment
at least 3 percent higher than state unemployment;
crime rate 5 percent higher than median crime rate statewide; deteriorating
infrastructure; and deteriorating homes and or commercial buildings. The fact
that a city can declare a section subject to redevelopment partly on the basis
of the city itself failing to maintain its own infrastructure is one of those
things that makes you shake your head.
Here’s what the California Alliance to Protect
Private Property Rights has to say about the new program:
While many states across the nation have imposed
restrictions on government’s use of eminent domain for economic gain, California has expanded
its power, all in the name of redevelopment. Community Revitalization
Investment Authorities introduce the worst form of corporate welfare. They
allow taxpayer dollars to be used to forcibly seize private property from
unwilling sellers to make way for private development. As in the past, the
combination of eminent domain and the potential for profit will only lead to
abuse, wasteful spending and public corruption. Today was a major setback for
private property rights in California.”
Continue reading at ….. https://reason.com/blog/2015/09/23/redevelopment-authorities-and-the-eminen
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