Land Use & Property Rights

Where: Portland

What: New proposal from Portland’s planning and sustainability commission would require new builds to have “opportunities to rest and be welcome” for people who do not live on the property

Daily Wire | Portland Wants Private Property Owners To Add ‘Mandatory Rest Spaces’ For The Homeless

Where: Colorado Springs, CO

How is Colorado Springs choosing to define owner occupied? An owner must inhabit the property for more than 185 days per year

What if an owner does not occupy property for more than 185 days per year?

• Not be allowed in single-family residential or single-family planned unit development zoning districts
• In other zoning districts, nonowner occupied units must be separated by 500-foot buffers

Will existing properties be grandfathered in and excepted from the new rules? Yes, as long as they timely file their annual application and fee

Colorado Springs Gazette | Colorado Springs City Council approves more rules for short-term rentals

Where: NYC

What is a bird friendly building ordinance? An ordinance that reduces the number of birds injured by flying into buildings

How?

• the use of special materials along facades to avoid avian strikes
• applies to under under 75 feet, the maximum height of most bird flight

What construction projects will it apply to?

•  all new construction
• all major alterations to buildings

Are other jurisdictions doing this? Yes

•  San Francisco in 2011 
• Minnesota in 2013

The City | HOW BIRD-FRIENDLY BUILDING RULES WILL FLY IN NEW YORK

Where: Texas

Who: Texas State Representative Burns

Why? Division and partisanship accomplish little

How does this relate to eminent domain? He will continue to push his eminent domain reforms HB 991 (2019 | TX)

Cleburn Times Review | State Rep. Burns calls for more considerate discourse

Who: Airbnb

What is Airbnb doing to address short term rental nuisances?

• prohibit “open invite” parties at all of its accommodations
  • Open invite parties are open to anyone and advertised on social media
• prohibit large parties at apartment buildings & condos
• identifying listings globally that may be violating the party house ban
• issuing new guest behavior rules
  • 1 warning for excessive noise, unauthorized guests, unauthorized parking, unauthorized smoking or excessive messiness reported by a host or a neighbor
  • After 1 warning, violations will result in account suspension or removal
• dedicated hotline for mayors and city officials 

Mercury News | Airbnb introduces new rules to rein in parties, nuisances

Where: Ontario Province, Canada

What: Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act increases fines and penalties for people who trespass on farms or interact with livestock being transported.

How would the farm trespass enforcement be enforced?

• $15,000 fine for first offenders
• $25,000 for subsequent offenses

Do farms get increased liability protection too? Yes increased protection against civil liability if a trespasser is hurt on farm property

Woodstock Sentinel Review | Legislation proposes stiffer penalties for farm trespassers

Where: Missouri

The legislation: Pre-filed HB 1412 (2020 |MO)

What attorney fees would be awarded?

• Fees incurred by a property owner
• Actual reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred

Webster County Citizen | Solon filing bills ahead of next month’s session

Who: Ikea

Where: East Texas

What: 42,000 of acres of pine forest

Why: “high standards related to responsible forest management” & the company goal to become self-sustaining 

Dallas Morning News | Why is IKEA buying up thousands of acres of forestland in East Texas?

Where? Jersey City, New Jersey

What happened? After $4.2M spent on a local elections, formed a PAC called Keep Our Homes, and this week voters approved short term rental restrictions

What’s the background between the city and Airbnb?

• 2015 they reached an agreement on short term rentals in the city
• In 2015 there were 300 listings, within a year 2000 listings, & 3000 listings today
• June 2019 the city passed a 60 day cap, prohibition of renters listing on airbed, and limits on multifamily building airbnbs

Wired | How Airbnb’s Fight to Overturn a New Jersey Law Imploded

Who: RealX Ventures Inc.

What: An online database of available property rights 

How does it work? Owners list their property rights & offers can be made and accepted through the platform

Expansion: other states, timber rights, solar rights

Pittsburgh Business Times | Startup takes high-tech approach to a low-tech industry

How much time is too much time to have no enforceable conflict of interest in Nevada? 2 decades

What changes are being considered?

• Part ways with the developer who also employs all the board members of the water district
• Establish procurement procedures
• Clear conflicts of Interest Disclosures

Nevada Independent | Water district linked to developer will consider reforms after eminent domain action revealed web of conflicts

Update to this gem from earlier this month:

Where: Storey County, NV

How did this come about?

• The owner of the Mustang Ranch is a developer at the Industrial Park
• This same person is also a Water District Commissioner
• This person signed development agreements as both the developer and the water district representative
• All employees of the Water District work and live at the brothel

The governance issue with the water district: Simultaneous Public and Private Benefit

Nevada Independent | For years, a public water district blurred the line between business and government — with a developer’s brothel workers at the helm

Where: Arizona

What: HB 2001 (2020 | AZ)

How long has Arizona prohibited AirBnB bans? Since 2016

What arguments are lawmakers in support of the repeal?

• investment groups are buying properties for short-term rental use
• “pricing out Arizonans”
• creating housing shortages
• neighborhoods are becoming businesses
• no one intended for this to happen
• return to local control

The Center Square Arizona | First Arizona bill for upcoming session seeks to repeal Airbnb law

What: the Institute for Justice has asked SCOTUS to review WOODCREST HOMES, INC., v. CAROUSEL FARMS METROPOLITAN DISTRICT,

Why? A developer formed a special municipal district, legally under state law, and then exercised eminent domain

What’s the private property right at issue? Whether eminent domain can be used by a private entity for the private entity’s benefit.

The Neighbor | Libertarian law firm asks SCOTUS to consider Colorado eminent domain case

Where: Tulsa OK

What project served as the catalyst for this private property rights group? A drainage proposal that the group believes disguises a redevelopment plan

Private Property Rights Group moniker: Save the Pearl Coalition

What end result does the group want? For the project to be prohibited from using eminent domain.

Institute for Justice | Save the Pearl: New Group Formed to Oppose Tulsa Development Authority’s Eminent Domain Plans

Where: San Antonio TX

What: Resolution opposing a pipeline’s use of eminent domain

What legislative changes are in the mix?

• No pipelines over the environmentally sensitive regions
• Give landowners and communities a stronger voice and more input for pipeline routes

Houston Chronicle | San Antonio becomes latest city considering anti-pipeline resolution

Where: Pennsylvania

What: PA’s Supreme Court ruled that a person may take by adverse possession land that is owned by a city

Is there anything unusual about the property?

• It was taken by eminent domain
• Nothing was built on the property
• The City did not maintain the property

The Court’s rational:

• Cities should have ” limited responsibility to monitor their properties at some point during the twenty-one-year prescriptive period”
• This will “promote the goals of municipal efficiency and the active and efficient use of the land by motivating municipalities to either use the retained property for the public benefit or sell it to the private individuals”
• If the city sold the property, the property could be “taxed for the municipality’s and the public’s financial benefit”

Obermayer | Whose Land is it Anyway? Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules that Municipalities are Now Subject to Claims for Adverse Possession

Where: Wyoming

What legislation? Draft legislation by WY Rep. Yin

How is the tax levied?

• On Property that is vacant 6 months or more per year
• Flate fee
• 5% of revenue stays with county
• 95% goes to the state Property Tax Refund Program 

Policy Supporting argument: This incentivizes more housing in the community by encouraging renting vacant houses

Have other cities tried this? YES

• Vancouver say a 15% decline in the vacancy rate
• Paris raised the tax rate on vacant homes

Jackson Hole News | Empty house? It could cost you

Where: Texas

What’s the issue: Senate Committees, Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee and Water and Rural Affairs Committee, will study ” the balance of private property rights and continued improvement in oil and gas infrastructure”

What can we expect? Recommendations that “ensure stability between private property owner protections and emergent oil and gas infrastructure.”

Why? Like other areas of the Country, Texas landowners and pipeline companies are at loggerheads over siting pipelines

Where: Washington State

What: a 2018 law that allows cities to require lenders to maintain properties that are in foreclosure

Why? To limit the number of blighted properties

Fairmont News | Fighting the blight of vacant buildings

Where: Storey County, NV

How did this come about?

• The owner of the Mustang Ranch is a developer at the Industrial Park
• This same person is also a Water District Commissioner
• This person signed development agreements as both the developer and the water district representative
• All employees of the Water District work and live at the brothel

The governance issue with the water district: Simultaneous Public and Private Benefit

Nevada Independent | For years, a public water district blurred the line between business and government — with a developer’s brothel workers at the helm

How did Houston based eminent domain uses catch pop culture? Eminent Domain is featured in Houston soul group, The Suffers, video for “Everything Here”

What other policy issues are included with eminent domain in this pop culture moment? Immigration & police brutality

Why? “But we have had friends who have lost their homes to eminent domain ’cause they didn’t have the same power as bigger developers. You never see how hard these people are working or what their backgrounds are and what happens to them once the cameras go away. So we wanted to present an insider view.”

Billboard | The Suffers Channel Grief, Frustrations Into ‘Everything Here’ Video: Premiere

What’s happening? In Colorado, an armed gunman broke into a home, took a 9 year old hostage, and after a 17 hour police stand off the police “blew up” the home

So how does the home owner get compensated when a governmental entity, like law enforcement, destroys your home when you committed no crimes? There is no compensation according to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals

What’s special about this? Its like civil asset forfeiture, where both progressives and conservatives agree there’s a problem with taking an innocent person’s property without compensation

Washington Post | Police blew up an innocent man’s house in search of an armed shoplifter. Too bad, court rules

Above the Law | I Want This To Be A ‘Taking,’ Even Though It’s Not

Where: Newark, NJ

What: Newark is replacing old lead water pipes but is encountering unresponsive property owners

How did Newark react? Passing an ordinance that allows the city on private property to replace water pipes without the owner’s consent

What do legislators intend to do when they are back in session? Give cities like Newark legal protection to enter property and replace lead pipes

North Jersey | Lead in NJ water: The murky problem between property rights and replacing pipes

Where: Savannah, Georgia

Who: Mayoral Candidate Regina Thomas

What: Property owners who need to fix up their properties shouldn’t have their land taken. There should be programs that assist homeowners to improve their property to city standards.

WTOC | Regina Thomas hopes grassroots movement lands her Savannah mayoral position

Where: Vermont

What: in 1964 a farmer barricaded himself on his property and set his property on fire after the property was taken for a highway

How will Vermont’s Department of Transportation memorialize this? It will take public input concerning a permanent memorial 

Times Union | Vermont to remember man who took his life fighting progress

what? Airbnb is rolling out a new “animal experiences”platform

supporters? Animal Advocates and Property Rights Supporters

Policy consideration? The program can bolster animal tourism

How does the platform address animal welfare? By adopting guidelines developed with World Animal Protection

Capital Public Radio | As California Cracks Down on Animal Captivity, Airbnb Offers an Alternative That Advocates Approve

Where: Pennsylvania

What is Pennsylvania saying about short term rental property managers? It is a violation of the state’s Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act & the PA Supreme Court will decide.

What did the short term rental property manager do?

• marketed the properties
• managed bookings
• collected payments

Philadelphia Inquirer | Airbnb property manager accused of violating law asks Pa. Supreme Court to weigh in on gig economy

Where: New Jersey

What happened? PennEast Pipeline Company is asking FERC to reverse a court ruling blocking the developer’s $1 billion, 116-mile natural gas pipeline 

What state agencies want FERC to say no?

• the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission
• NJ Department of Environmental Protection
• NJ Board of Public Utilities
• NJ’s Division of Rate Counsel

NJ Spotlight | Three State Agencies Challenge PennEast’s Effort to Overturn Adverse Court Ruling on Pipeline

What eminent domain opposition alliance? Opponents to the Permian Basin pipeline through Texas Hill Country

Who is in the alliance?

• Texas rural landowners
• environmental groups
• conservative-leaning municipalities 

KTUU 2 Anchorage | Unlikely alliance fighting pipeline in Texas Hill Country

Where: Utah

The legislation: Draft amendment 2020FL-0182/013 (2019 | UT)

Property owner opposition arguments:

• eminent domain is a sharp tool
• eminent domain is very heavy handed
• “goes against my belief in private property rights”

What limiting options also failed?

• limiting the use of eminent domain to large urban areas
• tax incentives including extending the time to 36 months for reinvestment of any proceeds from an eminent domain purchase

Salt Lake City Tribune | Utah lawmaker floats use of eminent domain for trails but runs into barriers

• State should stay out of local business
• The bill, HB 288 (2019 | OH), is too broad
• Interferes with existing plans for parks that are not yet built

Galion Inquirer | Should eminent domain be used to secure land for recreation trails?

Where: Texas

Who: Drew Springer

What is he saying?

• “I’d say 90 percent of Republicans think like we do,” Springer said. “There’s the middle two percent that want to stir the pot on everything and are keeping a lot of things from getting done.”
• “Springer said those two percent are keeping 1,400 oil wells in the Permian Basin from becoming operational which means the U.S. has to rely more on the Middle East for its oil.”
• ” It also lowers the tax base in Texas.”

Jacksboro Herald Gazette | REP. SPRINGER HOSTS JACKSBORO TOWN HALL

Where? Columbia, SC City Council

How would the vacant building registry work?

• initial registration is free
• after 1 year, non-residential buildings would have a $100 fee
  • after 2 years $500
  • after 3 years $1000
• after 1 years residential property owners would pay $50 fee
  • after 2 years $250
  • after 3 years $500

WLTX 19 | Columbia City Council approves vacant building registry ordinance

Where? Freeport Texas

Why is Freeport Texas important to eminent domain laws in Texas? An eminent domain issue in 2004-2005 was touted as a prime example of 2005 eminent domain reforms

What is happening in Freeport Texas now in 2019? resolution supporting the necessity of the port of Freeport exercising eminent domain

Institute for Justice | Texas Eminent Domain Censorship

Western Seafood Co. v. CITY OF FREEPORT, TEXAS, 346 F. Supp. 2d 892 (S.D. Tex. 2004)

the Facts | Port Freeport proceeds with eminent domain of East End

Where: Moab Utah

What type of project would use eminent domain? A bypass to move bug truck traffic out of downtown

What is the campaign rational supporting the use of eminent domain? The safety risk of large tricks in the city’s downtown

The Times Independent | Six candidates, but what’s the difference?

Where? First, Anchorage, now Austin, TX

What? An agreement between a developer & nonprofit Ending Community Homelessness Coalition

How much will be covered?

• housing 100 homeless people for up to 5 years
• $1.75 million in support to fund in-home health care and social workers

Austin Business Journal | Ahead of final rezoning vote, 4700 East Riverside developers announce plan to house homeless

How did we get here?

• Picture an open beach that surfers enjoy in Northern California
• A billionaire buys the property and closes the beach
• Legal disputes wind through state agencies, state courts, and federal courts
• Other beach access came into the picture, including ranch land with beach access
• IN 2018 Gov. vetoed a softer version of the bill
• 2019, Gov. Newsom signs AB 1680 (2019 | CA)

What does AB 1680 do?

• Provides public access for coastline
• Creates a crime for blocking beach access
• Grants Coastal Conservancy and States Lands Commission eminent domain authority to be used expeditiously to create boundary lines for beach access

LA Times | Newsom signs bill to open Hollister Ranch beaches to the public

Where: Miami Beach

What does state law say about short term rental fines? A cap of $1000

What does Miami Beach say? A $1000 fine isn’t stopping short term rental violations by wealthy property owners so they’re implementing fines from $20,000 to $100,000

What other enforcement mechanisms are being used by Miami Beach? shutting off utilities, including electric, water and sewage until a home owner proves that the property isn’t being used for short term rentals

Reason | Miami Beach’s $100,000 Fines for Airbnb Rentals Are Illegal, Court Rules

How do property rights come into the 2020 candidates? By lowering drug prices, the impact is taking intellectual property rights from pharmaceutical companies

Is this unusual in health care? No, the America’s Health Insurance Plans did the same in a letter to the Trump Administration

The Hill | 2020 Democrats embrace aggressive step on drug prices

Where: Florida

What’s happening with racetracks in Florida? Florida banned dog racing

What did racetrack owners do in response? Filed suit alleging property rights violations because state law categorizes racing animals, in this case dogs, as property

Orlando Sentinel | Greyhound racing supporters sue to overturn Amendment 13, which bans dog racing

Where: Richland, Washington

What’s the property background: Owners have lived there 40 years, want to add a bedroom, closet and bath to their 1/1 cottage

What’s the city say: Impact Fee is $60,000

What do property rights attorneys say? Institute of Justice says:

• the Supreme Court ruled that excessive fines constitutional protection applies to this
• impact fees have to prove an impact, and at the same owner is not a new impact

KEPR | Richland widow suing city for right to renovate home

Where: Boise Idaho

Why did the mayor of Boise create a short term rental advisory committee? 1200 public comments on a short term rental proposal

Who will be on the advisory committee?

• local residents
• neighborhood leaders
• property owners
• realtors

What will the advisory committee be tasked with accomplishing?

• address the impact of short-term rentals on neighborhoods
• address the need for housing affordability
• offer recommendations to Boise City Council

KTVB | Boise forms advisory group for ‘complex’ short-term rentals issues

Where: Arizona & New Mexico

What is the new group property rights group? Southwestern Communities Coalition

What does Southwestern Communities Coalition support?

•  thriving communities
• sustainable growth
• a strong economy
• sound stewardship of natural resources
• protection of property rights
• job growth and creation

How big is the coalition?  Operates in 16 counties in Arizona and New Mexico

Arizona Range News | New group looks to jump start economy, promote private property rights

Where: Ohio

What limits is Ohio considering on eminent domain? Whether eminent domain can be used to build recreation trails

The legislation: HB 288 (2019 | OH)

The Center Square Ohio | Should government be able to seize private property to build rec trails? Ohio lawmakers study

Where: Sweden

Who: McDonald’s is adding beehives to the back of its billboards to promote honey bee communities

Is the company partnering with a billboard company? Yes, McDonalds and JCDecaux are adding beehives to the back of unused billboards as well

Good News Network | McDonalds is Turning Dozens of Roadside Billboards into ’Bee Hotels’ in Sweden

Where is this legal brouhaha occurring? Texas

What’s the shuffle about? photojournalists say Texas law interferes with their 1st amendment rights

Which no fly zones are involved?  no-fly zone above buildings like sports stadiums & prisons 

Potential legislative fixes: Add a definition of “surveillance,”

Dallas Observer | Photojournalists Group Challenges Texas’ Drone Law (with link to lawsuit)

Where: Boca Chica Village, Texas

Who: Space X

How much is Space X’s offer?

• 3 times appraised value
• VIP launch viewing access
• the offer is time limited to 2 weeks

Texas Standard | SpaceX Offers Buyouts To Boca Chica Homeowners

Business Insider | SpaceX is trying to buy a hamlet inside its Texas rocket-launch site because it ‘did not anticipate’ there’d be any ‘significant disruption’ to residents who live there

What occupation(s) are addressed in Texas Attorney General Opinion KP-0272? Bail Bonds

What question was answered? Whether local jails can contract with 3rd party vendors to provide for signage for bail bonds, for a fee to the bail bonds service.

Are signage board permitted in jail facilities or do the boards violate the prohibition on solicitation by bail bonds? Signage for bail bonds is permitted in local jails

Where: Boise Idaho

What regulation would Boise require for short term rentals?

• A city issued permit
• Must be a residence, that the owner otherwise occupies
• Limits a single property to ONE short term rental
• Comply with City Code

3 reasons Boise realtors oppose the regulations?

• creates more obstacles for owners
• infringement on property rights
• the regulations will do nothing to address housing affordability, the basis for the regulations according to the city

KTVB | Boise realtors’ group opposes city’s plan to regulate short-term rentals

Who is the New Kid on the Block? Swimply, the “AirBnB of pools”

What is the benefit to property owners? offset the cost of pool & its maintenance

Does the platform provide insurance? No.

Does the platform require pool inspections? yes, a 24 point pool inspection is required

Los Angeles Times | Don’t have a backyard pool? Swimply, the Airbnb of pools, might be your answer

What project is seeing cost increases over land acquisitions? California’s High Speed Rail

What 5 ways are land acquisitions increasing costs for the project?

• construction delay costs
• land acquisition cost increases
• litigation costs
• the launch of a federal audit
• Ethics investigation into the consultant property chief

Los Angeles Times | California bullet train’s mishandling of land deals adds to mounting costs and delays

Which high speed rail authority has property challenges? California High Speed Rail

What Property challenges?

• Eminent Domain. Acquiring Property
• Landlord. It has acquired property that isn’t actively used but must be maintained.
• Toxic Land. It has to remediate toxic land it obtained
• Actively engaged in agriculture. To obtain a right of way, it had to purchase fields in some cases and now has at least 466 acres of land under cultivation
• Relocating Utilities. Acquired land has services that must be moved to continue the project.

Governing | California Bullet Train Slowed by Unforced Errors

Which court is considering whether a delegation of eminent domain authority include sovereign immunity? 3rd Circuit in In re PennEast Pipeline Company, LLC, — F.3d — (September 10, 2019),

What did the court say about sovereign immunity and eminent domain? Not happening unless there is a clear statement in the delegation

Yale Journal on Regulation | Delegation of Eminent Domain Powers to Private Entities: In Re PennEast Pipeline Co.

Where: Pueblo County, Colorado

What rail project: Southwest Chief & Front Range Passenger Rail Commission’s Front Range Rail

What decisions will voters make?

• taxing authority of rail district
• eminent domain authority of rail district
• bonding authority of rail district

Who oversees the district? The Southwest Chief & Front Range Passenger Rail Commission is under the Department of Transportation’s purview

Public Benefits of the rail line:

• support for population growth
• support economic growth
• offer sustainable, reliable travel choices

CPR | A Vote On Front Range Rail Could Come In 2020

Where: Arizona

When did Arizona pass statewide law prohibiting local bans of short term rentals? 2016

What did 2019 revisions do to this statewide protection of statewide short term rental rules?

• local licensing
• local officials can require information about short term rentals

How does Tempe, AZ proposal to regulate short term rentals look?

• Require contact information for the owner + an emergency contact
• and that the contact information be displayed in the short-term rental.
• Require contact information be updated in writing within 10 days of a change
• Creates a local database and local licensing forms
• Compliance with all federal and local laws, rules and regulations
• Require a transaction privilege tax license
• Defines a vacation rental or short-term rental

KTAR | Tempe considers regulating Airbnb-type short-term rental properties

What will the investigation by the federal Government Accountability Office focus on? Whether the use of eminent domain for the border wall is permissible against private and/or public lands in New Mexico

Why would it matter whether the border land is owned by the state or private land owner? There is a stronger argument to use eminent domain against the state based on a proclamation that pre-dates statehood

Albuquerque Journal | Eminent domain efforts for wall to be probed

The Opinion:

KP-0267 (2019)

Who requested the opinion?

Corrections Committee Chairman James White

What questions does the opinion answer?

• “whether a Texas court would conclude that the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines guarantees are incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause or, alternatively, by its Privileges and Immunities Clause”
• “whether· Texas courts would recognize article I, section 13 of the Texas Constitution “as a constitutional guarantee that protects Texans from excessive fines.”
• “how a court would “likely interpret a law that mandates the executive branch to enforce a statute accompanied with an excessive fine.”

The answers:

• Q1. Yes.
  • TX Courts would find 8th Amendment excessive fine guarantees in the 14th Amendment Due Process Clause
• Q2. Yes.
  • This part of the Texas Constitution protects against excessive fines- there is a loophole. The Court could separate the unconstitutional part of the fine and permit the constitutional portion of the fine.
• Q3. Yes.
  • The US Constitution, the US Supreme Court ruling, would be instructive on Texas Courts.

Where:

US -Mexico Border

Who:

Rachel’s Network

What is the target audience of Rachel’s Network?

• addressing the “other side” of commonly-discussed issues
• targeting marginalized groups overlooked by media coverage and funding efforts
• such as translating eminent domain information + landowners’ rights materials into Spanish

How are funds being expended?

• Center for Biological Diversity
• Texas Civil Rights Project

Philanthropy Women | How Rachel’s Network Funds Vital Efforts at US-Mexico Border

Where:

California

What bill did not address raised eminent domain abuses?

SB 5 (2019 | CA) A bill to reestablish a redevelopment agencies that were know to have ” abused eminent domain” & replete with “crony capitalism.”

How much redevelopment funding is in SB 5?

• $2 billion a year to the local governments
• 1/2 of which is dedicated to affordable housing

LA Times | Some bad bills still alive as Capitol session nears the end

Where:

Utah

What is a “resolution of necessity”?

Utah local governments pass resolutions of necessity to authorize eminent domain actions by government attorneys

How much funding is included in a resolution of necessity?

The resolution lists the amount appropriated by the local government for the eminent domain taking.

Camarillo Acorn | City wants to strike deal with LDS church

Where:

Harris County TX

How is Harris County planning on strengthening its input in low income housing development?

By passing resolutions supporting developments.

What is Harris County’s goal?

To prevent what they see as arbitrary denial of low income housing tax credits

Community Impact | Harris County seeks to have more influence in tax credit process for low-income housing

1. Immigration rhetoric trumps border property rights
2. Trump likes the ruling in Kelo and has reprioritized property rights
3. There is no Republican resistance to de-prioritizing property rights

L.A. Times | Reason | Opinion: Trump seizing private property for his wall? Don’t say he didn’t warn you, GOP

Where: Wisconsin

What entity designated the properties as blighted? Village of Mount Pleasant

How much land was designated as blighted? 2800 acres, including “luxury homes”

What entity benefited from the taking? FoxConn

Wisconsin Watch | ‘Blight’ declaration for Foxconn one of the largest ever seen, experts say

Where: Detroit

Who: Sharing Detroit

Who is Sharing Detroit?

• short-term rental owners
• managers
• contractors
• other individual supporters of short term rentals

What affiliations? Not affiliated or supported by Airbnb

What 4 short term rental regulations are opposed by Sharing Detroit?

• Short-term rental properties must be the owner’s primary residence
• Rental units must be at least 1,000 feet apart
• Rentals cannot host more than 10 guests at once
• Units can’t be rented out for more than 90 days/year

Crain’s Detroit | Group fighting proposed Airbnb, short-term rental rules in Detroit

What start up is advancing blockchain property rights? Bitmark

Who is investing? WI Harper and DCG

Who is on board with Bitmark’s concept? UC Berkeley, H2, and Pfizer

Bond and Finance News | Blockchain-based Property Rights Startup Closes $3M Led by HTC

What is park equity? well-maintained with quality amenities and programming in low income and minority areas

How does park equity benefit cities?

• promote equity in mental and physical health
• encourage economic prosperity
• “Infusing vibrancy back into public spaces transforms the perception of place and can become a strategy for wealth building for existing residents and businesses”

Where is park equity taking root?

• Miami-Dade County, Fla.
• Brownsville, TX
• San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department

Who is talking about this? City Parks Alliance and the Urban Institute

Governing | Parks for All

Where: South Padre Island

How are property owners notified before fines? 2 rounds of notices

What fines can be imposed?

•  $1,000 a day for a first offense
• $1,500 per day for each additional offense

What fees are imposed to establish a short term rental on South Padre Island?

• annual licenses cost $200 for hosted rentals
• $400 for unhosted rentals
• $100 fire safety inspection fee
• $20 processing fee

Press Herald | South Portland to act on short-term rental violations

Where: Las Vegas, Nevada

What limitations on short term rentals exist in Las Vegas?

• Area limitations.
  • Prohibited in the areas flanking the Strip
  • Prohibited south of Sahara Avenue

How is Las Vegas enforcing illegal short term rentals in those areas?

• Asking neighbors to call in, document with pictures and report illegal short term rentals
• $1,000 fine per day added to their property tax bill

3 News Las Vegas | Clark County finds new way to levy fines on illegal short-term rentals

Where: North Carolina

What legislation was vetoed? HB 645 (2019 | NC)

Why was HB 645 vetoed?

• Local governments should have more say over billboards, clearing, and tree cutting
• Protecting the beauty & environment should be a top priority

News & Observer | Gov. Cooper vetoes bill that would have let billboard owners bypass local rules

Where: Longview Texas

What arguments are being used to revisit billboard ordinances?

• Times have changed since they were written
• Digital Billboards are modern technology
• Digital Billboards could help reduce the number of billboards

News Journal | Longview could revisit billboard sign ordinance; Waffle Shoppe site to remain for now

Where: Swansea, Massachusetts

What’s happening with zombie property in Swansea? Covenants were added to a shopping center’s title and its impacting new tenants causing the city to look at eminent domain

How will eminent domain be used?

• In Longmont, CO eminent domain was threatened on an abandoned department store in a mall, and an agreement emerged to redevelop the property
• Worcester, Massachusetts threatened eminent domain on a downtown mall and it was sold for redevelopment

Bisnow Atlanta | Could Eminent Domain Be The Zombie Mall Slayer?

Where are prayer zones popping up? South Carolina

What specific area is being protected in the prayer zone? Areas around South Carolina Schools

Is there a local ordinance or a state law on prayer zones? No, the signs do not require regulation is they are on private property and out of right of ways

WSOCTV | ‘Prayer Zone’ signs crop up near South Carolina schools

Where: New York

What would the legislation do? prevent the annexation of farmland for industrial use

What argument do local governments offer to use annexation of farmland? It is an economic development tool

WAMC | Assemblyman Calls For Moratorium On Farmland Annexation

Times Union | Bill would slow transformation of farmland to industrial use

Where: Illinois

Who: mayors of Burr Ridge, Darien, Hinsdale, and Willowbrook

How: By using eminent domain to acquire the land, they would prevent the re-opening of a medical-device sterilization facility

What is the environmental issue with the facility? A state regulatory agency shuttered the facility over the emission of harmful gases

Bloomberg Environment | Illinois Cities Consider Eminent Domain to Stop Sterigenics (2)

Where: Oakland California

Who is making the opposition arguments? local pastors

Which stadium was built with the use of eminent domain? Oakland Coliseum, home to the A’s since 1968

Community arguments in opposition to a new waterfront stadium?

• the new stadium forsakes “the significant investment in the Coliseum”
• insult to the residents of East Oakland, who have been partners and neighbors
• redevelopment of the Coliseum will price residents out of their neighborhood
• tax dollars should not go to a private developer in the form of subsidies when there is education and infrastructure that needs the funding

Mercury News | A’s move from Coliseum would be insult to East Oakland residents

Where: Texas Hill Country Pipeline

What: Kinder Morgan is ordered to pay an additional $2.7 million to 3 land owners

How far along is the legal process?

•  Blanco County Special Commissioners
• Up next: District Court

What revenue sources will the pipeline offer for local governments and landowners?

• The company says $1 billion annually to state and county governments 
• Permian Basin leaseholders will earn more than $2 billion in annual royalties

Houston Chronicle | Kinder Morgan ordered to pay another $2.7 million in Hill Country pipeline dispute

• This Conservative Court USSCT is going to AMAZING for property owners.CATO is joining Owners Counsel of America, Penneast New Jersey Property Owners, and Institute for Justice in an Amicus asking for US Supreme Court review of a pre-condemnation access and bond case
• Pay up first. Property owners should not be deprived of their land while they still possess their land without compensation.
• Private Companies need to be watched closely. Private companies exercising Eminent Domain need more guardrails.

CATO | Don’t Abuse Property Rights to Build Pipelines

Who is taking about property rights in data? Academics at Stanford & Republican Congressman & the World Economic Forum

Is there lingo to learn? ODP Online Data Property

How would this work? Private sector & government would recognize consumer data as the property of the consumer.

AEI | Perspectives on Property Rights in Data

Where: San Francisco

The ordinance: Plastic and Litter Reduction Ordinance

What is required but he Plastic and Litter Reduction ordinance?

• A gathering of 100 or more on city owned property requires reusable cups for at least 10% of attendees
• Single use food service items are available only by request

What? Opponents to eminent domain are surreptitiously planting fruit trees on land that has been taken by eminent domain

How could this be used? Imagine a group planting state trees or state flowers that could be protected from removal.

The signage:  “A gift to the people, reclaiming land stolen by corporate greed.”

Where did this happen? Property taken for the Kelo project in New London, Mass.

The Day | Group is planting fruit trees, vegetables on Fort Trumbull eminent domain land

Where: Wind Point MN

What: A municipal license

What would the municipal license replace? local short term rental ordinances

Journal Times | Wind Point looks to pre-empt Airbnb issues by creating municipal license

Where: Moab Utah

What is Moab doing? Adopted a new land-use code that blocks construction of new hotels, condos and houses intended for short-term rental

Is the prohibition permanent? The intent is to study and find appropriate zoning restrictions for hotels, condos and houses intended for short term rentals

The Salt Lake Tribune | Moab has extended its moratorium on new construction for short-term rentals

Where: D.C.

What resolution protecting private property? Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) resolution condemning socialism

How does private property rights fit into this? Socialism will “eliminate the private property rights of all people of the United States.”

Why does this matter? Every legislature will have a Republican filing the same or similar resolution calling on the protection of property rights

The Hill | GOP senator introduces resolution to formally condemn socialism

Where: North Dakota

What is pore space? The hollow underground space in rock formations

Who sued? Northwest Landowners Association

Why did they sue? The only property rights protections for pore space in statute were contractual and that made the taking of pore space, without a contract for compensation, a taking without just compensation

The proposed legislative solution: permit  compensation for pore space used for saltwater disposal or enhanced oil recovery, unless the land owners have an existing contract

San Francisco Chronicle | Group sues North Dakota over ‘pore space’ law

Albany Times Union | Group sues North Dakota over ‘pore space’ law

WHO: Economist Leah Brooks and law professor Zachary Liscow

WHAT: Looking at the cost of construction from 1960 to 1980 find land costs are minimal

HOW does this impact eminent domain reform?

• eminent domain reform does not increase construction costs, even when accounting for inflation
• the proportion of construction costs that relate to land acquisition has not risen in comparison to the project costs

Bloomberg | America’s Roads and Bridges Cost Too Darn Much

Where: Oklahoma

What’s happening? Oklahoma separately values the property owned by companies that have eminent domain authority

How does it work?

• impacts “public service” companies (companies that have the privilege of using eminent domain)
• property assessments are conducted annually by the Oklahoma’s State Board of Equalization 
• there’s an opportunity for companies to protest, all the way to the State Supreme Court
• assessments are certified by the governor, lieutenant governor, state auditor and inspector, state treasurer, attorney general, state superintendent of public instruction & the president of the board of agriculture
• certified assessments are sent to counties

The Oklahoman | ‘Public service’ valuations complex but usually worked out, administrator says

Where: Pennsylvania

Why does state law determine compensation in a federal eminent domain? Natural Gas Act according to the 3rd Circuit

What compensation does this open? consequential damages

Reuters | 3rd Circuit adds consequential damages to Kinder Morgan’s tab for pipeline expansion

Where: Parker County, TX

What is happening? landowners in the path of a pipeline are receiving no notice of entry onto land and are removing trees

How does this differ from other examples? Some landowners say they had existing contracts with the pipeline company that required notice and the preservation of certain trees

Beyond compensation and the eminent domain reform is there another legislative issue? Yes, is pre-condemnation access trespass?

Weatherford Democrat | Frustrated

Where: Dallas

What: a carwash on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South Dallas

What action did the city take? city’s zoning board of adjustment determined the property was a nuisance which caused the business to cease operations

Why does this matter: 2019 eminent domain bill concerned compensation and if this local government action is a taking it adds to the stack of compensation policy issues

Dallas Observer | Car-Wash Case a ‘Taking.’ If It Stands, No One Is Safe, Not Me, Not You

Where: North Carolina

What’s the bill look like? HB 645 (2019 |NC)

How will HB 645 change property laws related to billboards?

• allow more billboards
• allow existing billboards to be moved up to 250 feet
• allow more digital billboards
• allow for tree trimming for the preservation of billboard sightline
• if eminent domain is used to remove a billboard, it can be relocated within 2 miles
• prohibit cities & counties from banning or limiting digital billboards

Who is in the opposition?

• environmental groups
• conservation groups
• wildlife groups

NC Policy Watch | Senate passes billboard measure, eroding local control, allowing for more digital outdoor ads

Where is this happening? north St. Louis County Missouri

What is happening? A blighted building cannot be sized by eminent domain

Why can’t eminent domain be used?

• the county issues the blight citations
• the property is technically in a municipality
• eminent domain is limited in the scenario to only transportation projects

KMOV 4 | North County tower sits in shambles, pinpointing blame difficult

Where: Austin, TX

How did the city determine illegal short term rentals? City hired a contractor

What did the contractor find? 75% of Austin’s short term rentals were illegal

New Kid on the Block: short-term rental monitoring company Host Compliance

Statesman | Study Finds 75% of Austin short-term rentals are illegal

Where: Georgia

Who is taking action? Glynn County Tax Commissioner Jeff Chapman.

How would short term rentals be taxed? By recalculating or revoking the homestead exemption

The Brunswick News | Homestead exemptions target of increased scrutiny

Where: Colorado Springs CO

Who is initiating the tax change? County Assessor Steve Schleiker 

How would a local tax assessor do this? Reclassifying the property as commercial from residential with a potential assist by the Legislature

The Gazette | Colorado Springs short-term property owners could see massive tax bill increase

Where: Florida

The legislation: HB 1159 (2019 | FL)

What does it prohibit?

• No city approval to remove, replant, prune, or trim a tree
• No required replanting of a tree if a tree is removed

WTSP | New law allows property owners to remove, trim trees without a permit

Where: California

What?  No private transfer fees

Are there exceptions? Yes, if the fees are used exclusively to support the encumbered property or cultural, education, charitable, recreational, environmental, or conservation

The legislation: AB 3041 (2028 | CA)

What: a poll conducted by San Marcos Daily Record

The results: majority believe more oversight if private entities have eminent domain authority

San Marcos Daily Record | Majority Believes Eminent Domain Should Not Be Given To Private Companies Without More Oversight

Where? Lancaster PA

What happened? Nuns protested a pipeline that was running through their convent’s land, ended up charged with trespass and fulfilling community service

What did the judge say about the situation? “We must all be more vigilant to elect to those legislative positions persons who are highly concerned with their local constituents and local problems, and not those who merely look for personal advancement, or who look to industry to fill their coffers for reelection.”

Lancaster Online | Judge in pipeline case offers some useful advice about how we should choose our lawmakers [editorial]

Where?  Florida

What legislative action triggered the lawsuit? When the county disbanded the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission

What governmental entity is being sued? The county

What is the claim? That the county’s regulatory change devalued taxi medallions that that is tantamount to a taking that requires compensation

Tampa Bay Times | Lawsuit: Hillsborough’s new taxi permits cost drivers thousands

Where? Texas

What question(s) will the TX Attorney General answer? Statutory Construction of the dog bite law, including?

• Definition of sworn complaint
• Does it have to be shown that the attack was unprovoked?
• What are defenses if the dog attack was provoked?
• Is the 10 day hearing requirement a hard limit? Or, can it be continued by the party or determined by the docket?

RQ -0294- KP Texas Attorney General