Eminent Domain Battle Rages On

It seemed a landmark ruling at first.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that it was legal for the government to use its eminent domain powers to take private land and turn it over to a developer. But a Florida community, Riviera Beach, has become a focal point of protest over plans that would force about 350 owners out of their homes and businesses.

Riviera Beach resident Martha Babson used to enjoy obscurity with a water view. She lived quietly - just Babson, her dog and birds sharing a green cottage perched off the Intracoastal Waterway. But that soon changed.

Babson's grass-roots fight to stop the planned billion-dollar redevelopment of Riviera Beach has gone prime time, from CNN to MSNBC and into many newspapers.

The hot-button is eminent domain and it's power over the small-time homeowner. Riviera Beach's right to force people to sell their homes to make way for a massive private redevelopment is gaining national exposure. If the plan pans out, Babson's neighborhood will sit at the bottom of a Disney like development harbor for yachts.

Babson stood in her yard announcing to the media exactly how far she is was willing to go to help stop the bulldozers.

"I'm going to wear makeup tonight," said the self-proclaimed "old hippie," who has been known to go straight from gardening to city council meetings.

A while later, Babson was at a neighbor's dining room table as a FOX News makeup artist prepared her for prime time news coverage. Outside, FOX News star host Sean Hannity was getting ready for a live broadcast of the Hannity & Colmes talk show direct from the Riviera Beach back yard of Rene and David Corie.

The Cories have lived in their stucco house for only five years before a Riviera city funded study included it in an area declared as slum and blight - rendering it a possible bull's-eye for bulldozing.

"I kept asking the community redevelopment agency what they were going to do with our house," says Rene Corie. "We were told a park, maybe a parking lot, then maybe a marina. Then they told me, 'We're going to let the developer decide what to do with your property. That's what really set me off."

Now, Riviera Beach has emerged as the poster child in the debate over when homes and businesses can be seized to make way for new redevelopment.

Babson, who has lived in Riviera Beach for 23 years, got there first. Within months of the 2001 study's findings, she did her own parcel-by-parcel analysis. Data was missing from Riviera's analysis, she discovered. Parcels of property included in the study as vacant, had homes. Sturdy houses were declared dilapidated.

But under Florida law, even good homes can be formally labeled blighted and thus targeted for redevelopment - an issue a special state legislative panel is reviewing. The panel is to suggest reforms by the time the legislature convenes in the spring.

"We go knocking door-to-door, asking people, Do you know what can happen?' " says Rene Corie. "And they all say, 'Not my house.' "

For months, Riviera Beach City Council Chairwoman Liz Wade has tried to assure residents their properties are not in the cross hairs of condemnation. A new master developer has pledged to repair homes instead of taking them whenever possible.

However, Wade recently changed her stance from never taking homes or businesses through eminent domain to doing so only as a last resort.

That's because Riviera Beach's ambitious vision needs private developers to build condos, waterfront businesses, housing and stores that can breathe new life into the waterfront city, home to 34,000. New development is occurring all over Florida.

As a result, Riviera's $2.4 billion redevelopment plan allows the taking of private property. Early estimates indicated up to 5,100 people could be displaced. The city won't need to take the entire area because some homes can be rehabbed. Riviera's actual figures will probably be much lower.

On paper the plan rivals Washington, D.C.'s displacement of more than 5,000 residents in the mid-1950s, still the largest eminent domain action in the country. Other areas in Washington, Missouri and New York states have taken private homes from citizens.

In June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Connecticut city could force homeowners to sell their land to make way for economic development.

Florida's rules are different. A city's redevelopment agency cannot take private property solely to create jobs or broaden the tax base. But it can force the sale of private property to cure blight.

The determination of blighted property is key. A property rights attorney with the Washington based Institute for Justice who represented homeowners in the Supreme Court case, said Riviera's blight study results were a foregone conclusion.

Others are joining the battle to save their homes and business in the area. A cafe owner and a civil engineer questioned whether the Riviera Beach study might be flawed. Both have vested interests in the decision. The newly declared area of slum and blight might affect their businesses.

Residents all over Florida, especially in older neighborhoods, including some in Fort Walton Beach are concerned about the new ruling's impact, fearing condemnation for new developments.