California Eminent Domain Report

I will be speaking February 11 at the Sacramento IRWA Chapter's lunch meeting (Chapter 27).  My presentation will be about avoiding pitfalls under the new eminent domain prejudgment possession rules.   This topic has received considerable attention over the past couple of years, and will undoubtedly be the focus of more attention over the next few years as appellate decisions involving the new rules start to appear.  

The meeting details are as follows:

La Provence
110 Diamond Creek Place
Roseville, CA 95747
(916) 789-2002

Board Meeting: 10:30 a.m.
Registration/ Meet & Greet: 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Luncheon: 12:00- 1:00 p.m.

The cost is $20 per person if you RSVP, or $25 per person at the door.  You can RSVP to Vanessa Cothran at vcothran@ufsrw.com.

One thought for now (since it has come up in several discussions and contexts in the past week):  While the new rules are clearly designed to benefit property and business owners, both by extending the time for an agency to obtain possession and by creating a balance that gives the owner a chance to defeat possession upon a showing of greater hardship than the agency will suffer if denied possession, the rules may also be having an unintended negative impact on some owners. 

Agencies are always trying to find ways to get projects built within narrow time frames and budgets.  And, funding sources often tie receipt of the funds to being "shovel ready" -- or at least having possession of the property.  With the new possession time lines, agencies can now find themselves in a position where they need to file eminent domain actions earlier than they might prefer, just to preserve project funding. 

This may compress the negotiation periods and force owners to hire lawyers even in cases in which an early, negotiated solution might otherwise have been possible.  And, unless the funding sources are willing to change the requirements necessary to secure funding, this problem is likely to continue.