Property Rights, Eminent Domain and Economic Development

Abstract

A large proportion of the public support local governments' role in fostering economic development. Seventy percent of respondents to an American Planning Association (APA) poll, identified job creation as a high priority for policy makers and 63% identified a preference for economic development funding receiving a high priority for scarce local government resources (AP A, 2012). Nonetheless, how governments go about achieving that goal is far more contentious. (Peters & Fisher 2002). The Supreme Court's 2005 Keio v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) ruling is a prime example of this. Keio upheld state and local governments' right to use eminent domain in order to further economic development goals, even when governments use eminent domain to transfer property between private owners.