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Sunday, September 11, 2005
Ind. Law - Floyd County eminent domain suit watched [Updated]
The Louisville Courier Journal's Ben Zion Hershberg writes today, in a story headlined "Eminent domain lawsuits watched: Sewer fight in Floyd could change limits," that:
A legal battle under way in Floyd County could set new limits on the way privately owned companies use eminent domain to take land from property owners.The General Assembly created an interim committee on eminent domain, which has been meeting this summer. Its next (second) meeting is set for September 21 in the House Chamber.The dispute is over lawsuits filed last month by Thieneman Environmental LLC, a newly created sewer system.
The company wants to take a 60-foot-wide swath of land from three neighbors to install a sewer line that would run from the company's planned plant in the Heritage Springs subdivision near Greenville to Jersey Park Creek.
The subdivision's developers, Steve and Don Thieneman, also own the sewer utility.
"I'm going to fight it," said Anna Mae Gahlinger, one of the property owners Thieneman Environmental sued and a vocal opponent of Heritage Springs. * * *
"You just don't take private property over the serious objections of its owner" because a private developer wants it, Gahlinger said.
Greg Fifer, the developers' lawyer, said he believes the legal issues are clearly in his clients' favor.
Indiana law gives utilities the right to take land needed for a public purpose, Fifer said, and it doesn't matter if the utility is privately owned.
The fact his clients own the sewer company and the subdivision it will serve doesn't matter, Fifer said. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission certified Thieneman Environmental as a utility in June, and that supports the company's right to take easements for its sewer lines to provide service to homeowners, he said.
The company would pay an appraised value for the easements.
But Mike Mullett, an environmental and public-interest lawyer from Indianapolis, said there might be ways for Gahlinger and other property owners to fight.
"You cannot exercise eminent domain for a private purpose," Mullett said. "It must be exercised for a public purpose."
The eminent domain suits were filed in Floyd Circuit Court. Judge J. Terrence Cody has recused himself and Clark Superior Court Judge Steven Fleece has been appointed to handle them.
[Updated 9/12/05] The Indianapolis Star today is also carrying, here, the Louisville Courier Journal story.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 11, 2005 07:25 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law