Synthesis Essay - Eminent Domain

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS When Canal Winchester offered Richard Pete= Stebelton $9,249 for a 1-mile strip of his property, Stebelton thought the payment was too low. Boy, was it ever. This month, a Franklin County Common Pleas jury decided the village should pay the farmer and used-car dealer $595,625. Canal Winchester wants the land to link a bike path between Rager Road and the village swimming pool. It used eminent domain to take a strip of Stebelton’s 80-acre property and hired an appraiser who determined that the $9,249 would be enough compensation. It wasn’t fair at all,= Stebelton, 75, remembers thinking. Stebelton was the only one of eight property owners who didn’t agree to sell his land to the village for the path. Instead, he went to court to challenge the village’s valuation. The jury decided Sept. 20 that the land the village wants, along the northern edge of his property, is worth $37,000. But the jury also decided that by taking it, the village was closing off a back entrance to the property and damaging the value of the rest of Stebelton’s land by $558,625. I was thrilled. I would have to be,= Stebelton said of the victory, adding that the trial put me through one hell of a miserable week.= Stebelton lives in a home built in 1825. He grows hay and raises horses on the land he bought 21 years ago for $300,000. Canal Winchester’s former mayor, Marshal Hall, offered Stebelton $60,000 years ago. But Stebelton turned that down. Hall was replaced by Mayor Jeff Miller four years ago. Stebelton was offered the $9,249 as part of a deal in which the Ohio Department of Transportation [ODOT] agreed to ûnance 80 percent of construction costs for the $1.57 million bike path project. Now, the project might be on hold, Miller said. We’re really at the mercy of ODOT,= Miller said. They’re going to decide where we go with it.= ODOT spokesman Joel Hunt said the agency will work with the village to move the project forward, and seek alternative routes if necessary. One option is to pay Stebelton the full jury award and move ahead. Another is to pay Stebelton the $37,000 and work out an alternate path that doesn’t diminish the value of Stebelton’s land, said Gene Hollins, the village solicitor. I think the council and mayor are very well-meaning people trying to carry out what would be a very nice bike path, which we’ve invested a good deal of effort in,= Hollins said. Eminent domain, the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation, is very controversial among Americans in the political atmosphere and even in society as a whole. Even though eminent domain has been established throughout the world for hundreds of years, there are growing concerns of how the policy is being used in the U.S. Many Americans are concerned that their private property will be taken from them and that they will be displaced from their homes due to the government claiming their territory, while others support eminent domain as it can help develop American infrastructure such as important systems such as roads to help America continue to function properly. Although eminent domain is not beneficial to many as it displaces them from their homes, it may be productive in helping establish countries’ infrastructure and their economy as it produces jobs and workplaces. Eminent domain is not beneficial to many Americans as it displaces them from their homes. Somin found that in Detroit, the 1981 Poletown case forcibly displaced some 4,000 people and numerous businesses in order to transfer the property to General Motors for the construction of a new factory= and Carney found that NLDC drove out the homeowners= up to 9 acres so that Pfizer could have a nice place to operate=. This shows the eminent domain displaced many from their homes as over 4,000 Detroit citizens were forced to leave their homes because of the government allocating land for General Motors to produce a new factory and produce more cars. This is significant because this caused people to become unemployed and poor as many Detroit citizens were forced to abandon their homes, businesses, schools, and churches all for the sake of giving the government land for General Motors to produce more jobs= when in reality that never came to fruition. This would cause the economy in Detroit to also decline immensely. In addition, more recently, in the early 2000s, a real estate company in Hurst, Texas decided to expand its private mall over more land which cost over 127 Americans to leave their homes. This further shows that eminent domain forces Americans to abandon their homes as over 127 Americans had to to leave their homes because of a private mall being expanded due to the government allocating land for the Texas corporation. This happened all because of the government’s absolute sovereignty over Americans through eminent domain and corporations’ selfish desires to make profit for themselves at the expense of American livelihoods. Furthermore, the Three Little Pigs cartoon shows the iconic Three Little Pigs being displaced from their homes because of the government seizing their land for a Walmart to be built. This may not have actually happened, but the cartoon is meant to represent and shows how in the real world Americans are being displaced from their homes because of the government’s abuse of eminent domain seizing of their private property at the expense of their livelihoods and homes as shown in previous examples such as in Detroit and Hurst, Texas, which further shows how eminent domain is not beneficial as it displaces Americans from their homes. However, Porter would disagree with Somin and the Three Little Pigs cartoon because in his research, he found that the government after going through the eminent domain process successfully returned more than one-third of the displaced households to the Freetown community= which is about 200 families. This is significant because this directly contradicts what Simon and the cartoon said as eminent domain, as shown through Porter, actually did the opposite: return displaced families back to their respective homes and communities. This showcases that the effects of eminent domain on displacing families and communities isn’t as clear cut as it may seem according to Simon and the cartoon and that it may depend on other factors besides the government. Eminent domain is productive as it helps establish countries’ infrastructure. The United States Department of Justice says eminent domain is beneficial as it has been utilized traditionally to facilitate transportation, supply water, construct public buildings, and aid in defense readiness.= In addition, the DOJ also says that eminent domain helps in establishing parks and setting aside open space for future generations, preserving places of historic interest and remarkable natural beauty, and protecting environmentally sensitive areas= such as Rock Creek National Park. This is signiûcant because this shows that eminent domain may be productive in helping protect nationally historic sites as well important natural environments. In addition, more importantly, it shows that eminent domain is important to developing infrastructure such as transportation and public buildings. This would help countries such as the U.S. function properly as eminent domain would allow for people to use buses, train stations, cars on roads, and work in public buildings so that society would work normally. Porter, as previously mentioned, would agree with the DOJ that eminent domain is productive as he saw that the Freetown community was able to get a new $600,000 community center — equipped with a full-sized gymnasium, meeting rooms, and a kitchen= as well as neighborhood street, water, and sewer infrastructure= being upgraded. This shows that eminent domain can have immensely positive effects on community development in communities such as Freetown as it allowed for the improvement of infrastructure by allowing Freetwon to have better streets, water systems, and sewer infrastructure, as well as a nice community resource center. It is significant because this is a prominent example of how a greatly eminent domain can transform a community from a desolate wasteland into a thriving and productive community by helping develop their infrastructure. Furthermore, eminent domain has helped America as a whole develop its infrastructure such as by helping build roads, train systems, public transportation, and much more. This shows that eminent domain can have immensely positive effects on country development as it can help modernize a country and help them function effectively and efficiently. This is significant because it shows that eminent domain has allowed us to have the leisure and accessibility to buses, trains, etc. if we don’t have access to a car and allowed for us to get to places quickly by establishing good roads which are important aspects of a country with a good infrastructure system.