On Beyond Kelo

Saturday's NYT offers a round-up of post-Kelo activity, including some jurisdictions that are moving quickly to condemn homes and businesses in order to replace them with shopping centers, condos, etc.

In Texas, for example, the city of Arlington has sought to condemn homes for a new Cowboys stadium, and in the wake of Kelo officials "filed condemnation lawsuits against some holdout property owners this month. Officials in Sunset Hills, Mo., outside St. Louis, voted to condemn a cluster of homes to make way for a shopping center, despite the pleas of some elderly homeowners who said they had nowhere else to go and no desire to move. Officials in Oakland, Calif., evicted a tire shop and an auto repair shop to make room for a development that is part of Mayor Jerry Brown's plan to bring 10,000 residents to the central part of the city."

The major case featured by the Times involves Santa Cruz, CA, where "city officials started legal action this month to seize a parcel of family-owned land that holds a restaurant with a high Zagat rating, two other businesses and a conspicuous hole in the ground and force a sale to a developer who plans to build 54 condominiums."

The owner of the so-called "hole in the ground" had "proposed hard-to-build, idealistic plans, involving alternative energy sources and unusual designs, that have never gotten off the ground"; his family says he's being penalized for trying to build something special on his property. The city says that its condemnation "is moving forward" because "The Supreme Court gave us reassurance of our ability to proceed."

Matt linked to this Kelo roundup on Friday.