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Legislator’s eminent-domain bill aims to stop MetroParks from taking private land for bike trail
YOUNGSTOWN
State Rep. Don Manning has readied an Ohio House bill designed to stop Mill Creek MetroParks from appropriating private property for a proposed bike trail.
The bill amends the section of Ohio Revised Code on the state’s eminent-domain laws to disallow it for the purpose of “providing a recreational trail.”
“There is a place for eminent domain when the project dramatically increases the health and safety of those affected, but a bike trail is by no means a legitimate reason for the government to steal someone’s property,” Manning of New Middletown, D-59th, is quoted in a Monday release. “We cannot continue to allow the government to adversely affect the lives of property owners for things as trivial as bike trails.”
The MetroParks has filed several eminent-domain suits against Mahoning County residents, seeking to acquire about 4.5 miles for a bike trail connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River across four counties.
Manning’s legislation won’t be assigned a number until it’s formally introduced at the next House session, set for Wednesday afternoon.
Manning’s bill, however, amends state law, and Chip Comstock, a local attorney who works in government law, said Monday eminent-domain rights are provided by the Ohio Constitution, which overrides the ORC.
On Monday, he researched several eminent-domain cases in Ohio courts, many of which were from the 19th century as there are far fewer modern cases. The only case under the Ohio Revised Code section amended in Manning’s bill was a 7th District Court of Appeals case in which property seizure for a gas pipeline in Harrison County was upheld.
Comstock said eminent-domain rights keep property owners from holding land “hostage” from the government as it seeks to use the property for the greater public good.
“The courts have the right to decide these issues on takings, but ... one of the things you come across – it’s the agency’s or government’s responsibility or burden to show it’s taking [land] for the public good,” Comstock said. “It seems to me that’s one of the arguments here.”