Eminent Domain Abuse in Ogden Utah: Local government attempts to seize private homes and businesses for Wal-Mart Store

Story dated 01 March 2005

"The city [of Ogden, Utah] is about to initiate condemnation proceedings and use eminent domain, if necessary, to acquire property for Wal-Mart in a 21-acre neighborhood along Wall Avenue. Most of the owners of 34 homes and eight businesses have agreed to sell, but more than a dozen refuse." It is those people's right to refuse to sell. It's their property.

In an unusually individual-rights minded move, the Utah senate passed a bill to make such acquisitions illegal in the state. "Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, has said Ogden's Wal-Mart project is a "perfect example" of the kinds of projects he sought to stop with the legislation. It's bad public policy, Bramble said, to push people out of their homes so the land can be sold to Wal-Mart." Predictably, local governments think that this bill is unfair to them. But, then, thieves always start shrieking when people try to stop them.

posted by The Sovereign Editor | 8:37 AM

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