Eminent domain action will be in 2005

The Senate bill would create a task force to study eminent domain.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- The Ohio House of Representatives plans to act on a measure dealing with government's ability to take private property for use by a private business by the end of the year, House Speaker Jon Husted said Wednesday.
Husted, a suburban Dayton Republican, said he was unsure what form the measure would take and didn't rule out a measure the Ohio Senate passed Wednesday that would place a moratorium on eminent domain actions to take private property that could be given to a private business.
"We don't know of anything we object to [in the Senate bill] at this point," Husted said.
Senators approved 29-0 and sent to the House the measure, sponsored by state Sen. Timothy Grendell, a Chesterland Republican and state Sen. Kimberly Zurz, an Akron-area Democrat, that would also create a task force to study eminent domain in Ohio.
Using it wisely
"We don't want to make light of the fact that eminent domain is a necessary and an important tool in certain situations that enables government to meet the public need for things like roads, bridges and schools," Grendell said. "However, any good tool can turn destructive if it's not used carefully and judiciously."
The Grendell and Zurz bill, as well as other measures pending in the Legislature, come in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.
In June, the nation's highest court upheld the right of the New London, Conn., city government to seize property for private development that city leaders say would generate more tax revenue.
The bill would place a moratorium on eminent domain for private development until Dec. 31, 2006.
What bill says
Under the measure, any state or local government during that time may not take without the owner's consent, private property that is in an unblighted area if the primary purpose is economic development that would ultimately result in giving the property to another private owner.
The Senate-passed bill would also create a legislative task force to study eminent domain. The proposed task force would have to report on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision's impact in Ohio by the end of this year and would have to report on whether Ohio's eminent domain laws need to be addressed by April 1, 2006.