I see you wrote that land being taken without compensation is _______. Would you be happy if I take something of yours that is very important to you and out of the goodness of my heart, pay you 50% of its fair market value?. That happened to several of my neighbors. One neighbor even asked the county to buy land anywhere locally and they would trade even. The county man left in a very agitated state of mind. He knew land sold for a lot more than what was being offered. The case went to court and the county had to pay close to fair market value for the land. Of course the shysters got a large chunk of the money.
“He knew land sold for a lot more than what was being offered.”
How about a law saying whoever set the value would have to sell their own property at a price proportionate to the land they were grabbing.
People talk like the utilities are just there to help us. The reality is that developers virtually control city councils and utilities. In my area the developers were allowed to build a new development supporting 20,000 new houses. Of course no improvement of the infrastructure was allotted to the surrounding community. Roads and other common items are overwhelmed. Does the developer or people who moved into that community pay for the infrastructure? No, they want to raise everyone elses taxes.
Another example is a large concrete company lobbied a councilman to build a county sports complex. Of course it would require ENORMOUS amounts of concrete. The county is planning to seize private property for this as well.
Isn’t it curious that the people effected by these enormous electrical towers and other projects are never the developers or city council??
The second and third hand stories I have heard are from people who want not only more than fair market value, but usually enough to retire on for the rest of their life. Fortunately for taxpayers, the Constitution does not support that interpretation.
I have never seen a case where land went for less than the fair market value and have seen many times when it went for MORE than fair market value. Some people have a greatly inflated value of what their land is worth, but there are plenty of PRIVATE appraisers to go to to confirm or dispute the offer.
I have seen several times when a person hires several appraisers who come up with numbers that are not high enough for him. One after another is fired. At least twice, I have seen the person go to court tying to convince 12 taxpayers that they should open their wallets for him — just because he wants more, not because the land is worth more. In neither case did the taxpayers side with the owner.
I know in some states, the laws allow the jury to take the easy way out — split the difference. In my state, the jury must take either the States offer or the owners claim. No splitting the difference. That discourages both sides to make unreasonable claims.