Westside battling abuse of eminent domain

Paul Johnson

People aren’t stupid; this is not about improvement, it’s about the

fight against the abuse of eminent domain. Few would argue that

eminent domain has no place in our society. What is at issue here,

though, boils down to taking land from one private party and turning

it over to another private party of the local government’s own

liking.

Let’s be more specific to the issue at hand. This great community

of ours was incorporated in 1953. At that time, part of the Westside

already had homes on the existing parcels. From that time, some

people, arriving later, realized that the Westside, being near the

ocean, should be a highly desirable place to live. At that time, the

ocean could be seen from ground level in some locations; now, the few

areas that would still have a view of the ocean will certainly be

blocked by homes or other structures once the thin strip of Newport

Beach leading up to Newport Terrace and the unincorporated area just

to its north are developed. The view from virtually all of the west

bluffs will be history. At least one person, knowing the area is an

intrinsically desirable location to live, developed a home to be

fitting of such an area.

There was one problem: the oil fields. The city, at that time,

made the decision to let many parcels be developed for light

industrial use, nearest the ocean.

Cut to today. Now the city (or at least some members of the City

Council) would like to correct the error the city originally made at

the expense of all the property owners on the Westside, be they

residential or industrial. Now, that, if we all sit back and let it

happen, will lead ultimately to the abuse of eminent domain.

One might ask if there is any gain to be had for those who knew

this, from almost day one, should be developed as a nice area. Should

the city now make the proposed added territory part of the original

redevelopment area and allow the use of eminent domain for anything

other than public use (such as parks or to widen a street), all the

property owners on the Westside will most certainly lose. What a

great injustice it would be if those whom came to the area early on

now had their property bought to be sold to a developer. If even they

were to buy one of the homes (though this is doubtful) it would in

all likelihood be less for more, but this is beside the point. They

already live and would like to continue to live right where they are.

I fear the city officials may decide to pass the added territory

to pacify those few people who would love nothing more than to have a

home on the bluffs at others’ expense. The truth is, if the bluffs

are to be developed with homes, it will be the housing market that

will cause it; eminent domain has no place in that issue and should

not be abused for that end result.

In closing, let’s all be vigilant and defeat the attempt to add

territory to the proposed redevelopment area. Improvement can be done

without eminent domain. There are a number of areas around the

country where this has happened and all were winners. We can make our

already great city even better, but it is easier when we don’t have

to fight our local government.

I would like to make a challenge to all involved: Let’s improve

without eminent domain. We can do this. Unfortunately, it looks to me

like it will be quite a battle of a still larger war against the

abuse of eminent domain, though I hope I’m wrong about that.

For more information on the abuse of eminent domain and to see

what other communities have done to fight it, go to the Web site

castlecoalition.org.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul Johnson is a Costa Mesa resident.