Measure Would Limit O.C. Land Grabs
Orange County voters will decide June 6 whether to slap new controls on when county supervisors can seize private property.
At issue is whether the county can use its eminent domain powers to condemn land for private development such as shopping malls and auto dealerships.
If the proposal, known as Measure A, is approved by voters, "we will not condemn private property for big-box developments, private dealerships or for redevelopment," said Supervisor Chris Norby, who drafted the measure.
Measure A is one of two local measures on the ballot June 6. The other one, Measure B, will be on the ballot only in Yorba Linda. It seeks a public vote on large developments in the city. Both measures require a majority to pass.
The eminent domain measure is part of the backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo vs. City of New London, Conn., decision in June. The high court ruled that local governments could seize private property and hand it over to developers.
The decision has set off a landslide of legislation in statehouses around the country.
In the Connecticut case, homes were taken so an office park and hotel complex could be built.
The Orange County measure is largely symbolic because it restricts only what the county can do, and the Board of Supervisors is on record opposing taking property for private developers. It doesn't apply to the 34 cities.
But supervisors, who put it on the ballot, are hoping that it catches the attention of city councils as a model ordinance. Already Anaheim is considering such a law, Norby said.
Eminent domain allows governments the power to take private property by offering fair market value to the owner. Often, the courts end up deciding the fair price.
In Orange County, one of the most famous cases was in May 2002, when Cypress officials voted to seize property owned by a large church to make way for a revenue-generating Costco.
Cottonwood Christian Center, which planned to build a church on the site, won a federal injunction to block the city that summer.
The two sides agreed on a land deal the following year, and the church relocated.
At the county level, eminent domain has been used for minor road alignments, to enhance a hiking trail in North Tustin, and in recent months to seize homes and dairy ranches in Riverside County behind Prado Dam. The action was part of the county's flood-control efforts to enlarge the dam's capacity.
