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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Ind. Law - Your castle -- or government's domain?

"Your castle -- or government's domain? Legislatures, including Indiana's, respond to high court ruling" was the headline to this story by Joe Gerrety yesterday in the Lafayette Journal&Courier. Some quotes from one aspect of the lengthy story:

For Lafayette resident Norman DeBoy, it's hard to imagine the process of eminent domain could be worse than the 15 years of stress he and his wife went through after Prophetstown State Park was announced.

Giving up the 7.5-acre site that he'd called home for 70 years to make way for a park was hard enough. But the thought that the government could have taken the property to clear the way for a private development would be another matter altogether.

"That's a whole lot worse," said DeBoy, a retired farmer. "The private sector is supposed to be free enterprise, isn't it? And that's not free enterprise." * * *

After two years of "pretty hard negotiating," Norman DeBoy took the state's offer for the home he built in 1969 and raised his four children in, along with his land and a pole barn. The house and barn have been torn down and the lot sits vacant, across Swisher Road from the Museum at Prophetstown.

DeBoy and his wife, Rita, now live in Lafayette, closer to their grandchildren. DeBoy said it's a shame the state park isn't really using the land, and no one is paying taxes on it anymore.

In that respect, it might have been better if a private developer had been involved. "If it'd been private," he said, "we'd still have taxable property, wouldn't we."

For more, see this 11/4/05 ILB entry.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 8, 2005 12:54 PM
Posted to Indiana Law