Local governments are more often resorting to eminent domain as a method to obtain property for projects. In New Jersey, two towns ended a dispute over a private citizens property, allowing the city of Cliffside Park to permanently take a parking garage from a business owner. The owner had been temporarily leasing the garage to the city, and is stunned to find out she will be losing the property. “I thought I was doing a good, civic-minded thing [by renting to Cliffside Park] and, lo and behold, they are going to take it permanently,” said Bridget Tapkas. “Now, we are going to end up losing a piece of property that is very important to our business,” she said. “That is not replaceable. You can give me the money for it, but I can’t get another piece that attaches to my property.”
In California, 4 parcels were taken which will be used for an elevated train system, connecting a 4 mile section between city centers.
A home-builder in Nevada has requested that the government start using eminent domain powers to buy out foreclosed homes. Richard Plaster said that the federal government should pay a price equal to the fair market value of the home at the time the request is received. There would be a fixed $40,000 charge, which is the average foreclosure cost.
The lender would get cash to use as new investment capital and that will get rid of toxic assets of its books, Plaster says. The government would then make a 30-year fixed-rate loan to the homeowner at the current interest rates. A portion of the loan would be forgiven, he says.
In the Napa Valley area of California, the City of American Canyon voted to take property from two property owners to build a facility which would house a 1 million gallon recycled water tank. City Manager Rich Ramirez said the city hopes to get money from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package to build the tanks within nine months. At the hearing, City Councilman Ed West was admonished by Mayor Leon Garcia, and asked to be respectul towards an attorney representing one of the homeowners after refusing to answer his questions.
In Santa Ana CA, several acres were taken and purchased using $22 million of city money, with the intention of providing affordable housing. Some landowners made huge profits in their dealings with the city. Others signed away their homes only after the city 
warned that it could condemn their properties and force them out if they didn’t cooperate. Carol Blair cried when the city announced its intention to buy her house – the same house her grandmother lived in. She left a note in the mailbox before she drove away: “Goodbye, my little house.” That was in 2005, and all that has become of the property now is abandoned buildings and a chain link fence surrounding a patchwork of vacant land littered with empty bottles and crumpled food wrappers
A contractor questioned the intentions of the state of West Virginia, which condemmed land he owned only after bids he submitted for a state project came in higher than the state expected. “It nearly destroyed all the confidence of contractors in West Virginia,” he said.
Fortunately, the state supreme court ruled in his favor, overturning the condemnation. “The dangers of abusing government power to take private property cannot be overestimated or overstated,” wrote one justice.
