Reader comments
Eminent domain power reduced for cities

So does the same law apply to the State of Utah and not just cities and counties. Make the two side work together and not make one size fit all. Lets vote them all out in November. So whe n someone says why we have trails that go no where we can refer them back to this law that has taken away the power to complete and connect trails across the state.

This article was poorly written. It says (paraphrasing) "Mapleton wanted to use to condemn the land and use it for a trail but now they cant'" - Uh, did the Desnews fact check that? Who says the Gov wont veto? Isn't there an existing court case that Mapleton won where the judge said they could? You know, the case where Mr. Buttars wrote the nasty letter to the poor Judge about? Does this new law supercede previous eminent domain cases? And can it legally do that w/o undoing any others? I have my doubts.

Mixed opinion. Part of me wants to congratulate the conservative Republican legislature for continuing to be sensitive to the private property owner like with Rep. Curt Oda's bill to reign in the power of the Department of Alcohol and Beverages Control to be both prosecutor, judge, and jury over small businesses. Eminent domain is a powerful tool of government that was originally developed to promote a substantial public interest - like elimination of blight and impacted an entire neighborhood. The focus was on addressing something already bad and terrible, not the promotion of something good for the public on the backs of property owners who have done no harm. Well, I guess, I don't have mixed feelings.