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Fort Trumbull, the area already taken and cleared in the New London eminent domain fight.
Kathy Hanley / The Hartford Courant
Fort Trumbull, the area already taken and cleared in the New London eminent domain fight.
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More than a decade ago, New London became infamous when it used eminent domain to bulldoze an entire neighborhood for “economic development.” The U.S. Supreme Court shocked the country in 2005 when it upheld the condemnations in Kelo v. New London. And it was all for nothing: The promised new development never materialized. Where more than 70 homes and businesses once stood, there is now vacant land overrun with weeds and feral cats.

Now, Connecticut has the opportunity to make things better. State lawmakers are currently considering a bill (HB 5123) that would prohibit the state and municipalities from using eminent domain for commercial purposes. The bill has already earned support from our organizations, the Yankee Institute for Public Policy and the Institute for Justice, which represented Susette Kelo and the other New London property owners before the Supreme Court. If enacted, HB 5123 would prevent what happened in New London from happening again.

In the wake of Kelo, eminent domain reform spread across the country. Twenty-three states enacted substantive reforms that have almost entirely eliminated eminent domain for private development. Eleven of those states passed constitutional amendments that strictly limit the use of eminent domain to transfer property to private developers. In addition, 10 state high courts have either rejected Kelo or made it more difficult for government to engage in takings for private development. All told, since the Kelo decision, 47 states have strengthened the rights of private property owners in either the statehouse or the court house.

To its shame, Connecticut remains one of only three states that continues to embrace eminent domain abuse. For example, West Haven recently joined New London in embarking on ill-advised deals with private developers. The city of West Haven’s redevelopment plan sought to take land — by eminent domain if necessary — and transfer it to a private developer who could then displace the existing commercial and residential properties with a luxury shopping center.

In 2016, the Institute for Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of West Haven resident Bob McGinnity (along with two of his elderly family members) to challenge the government’s attempt to condemn his home for this private-to-private taking. IJ quickly obtained a preliminary injunction preventing the city from taking McGinnity’s property while the case was pending in the trial court. The case was settled in 2017 when McGinnity voluntarily sold his home to the developer in order to care for his elderly uncle.

Today, even though West Haven acquired the land needed for the project, nothing has been built. Like in New London, where the government rather than the marketplace was driving development, the land in West Haven remains undeveloped.

As those two cities have made it painfully clear, when the government rents out its power of eminent domain for the benefit of private developers, failure is often the result, rightful property owners are displaced and taxpayers are left with the bill. Taking private property through eminent domain is not necessary for development to flourish.

As William Stern, who oversaw the renaissance of Times Square pointed out, “Times Square succeeded for reasons that had little to do with our building and condemnation schemes and everything to do with government policy that allowed the market to do its work, the way development occurs every day nationwide. By lowering taxes, enforcing the law, and getting out of the way instead of serving as real estate broker, the government incentivized investment and construction and encouraged the rebirth of Times Square to what it is today.”

And John Norquist, the former mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a rustbelt city with issues as challenging as any in Connecticut, noted, “Prohibiting the exercise of eminent domain for purely economic development purposes will not prevent redevelopment given the array of other incentives available to government authorities interested in stimulating economic development.”

City planners in Bridgeport, New London, West Haven and across Connecticut will have tools after HB 5123 becomes law.

Connecticut should join the rest of the nation in protecting property rights, and stop being the poster child for everything that goes wrong when the government values private developers’ interests over the rights of its own citizens, particularly those whose voices do not ring loudly in the halls of the state capitol.

The authors are Carol Platt Liebau, the president of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, and Renée Flaherty, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, who represented property owners in the litigation in West Haven.