The Maryland Senate will again take up the process for condemning private property today, with a bill that mainly increases payments to property and business owners.
But the bill (SB 3) reported out of committee has been stripped of all its provisions restricting how local governments may take land and buildings for economic development or urban renewal projects. Republicans will attempt to put those kinds of restrictions into the bill, said Senate Minority Whip Allan Kittleman of Howard County.
The subject received much attention from lawmakers last year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 in the case Kelo v. New London that a city could forcibly take a house to build a private business development.
Kittleman and other GOP senators have introduced a constitutional amendment to ban the practice.
“My problem is that they?ll never give it a vote in committee,” Kittleman complained. And the Senate changed a rule earlier in the session so any bill on condemnation could not be turned into a constitutional amendment on the Senate floor.
Instead, the Judicial Proceedings Committee brought out a bill with no restrictions on how and why the state, a county or city could condemn a property.
“There was a lot of feeling that we would do it some time or other,” said Sen. Norman Stone, D-Baltimore County, floor leader on the bill and a co-sponsor. “But we didn?t think it would pass both houses.”
The bill also increases the maximum amounts government may compensate owners for relocation and disruption of their business, in addition to the fair market value of the property. “These amounts haven?t been increased in 40 years,” Stone said.
He indicated that the committee would resist attempts to strengthen the legislation. “I think it?s tempting to take this bill and reverse Kelo,” Stone said. But “it?s getting late” in the session for such a measure to pass.
Maryland counties and municipalities consistently have opposed attempts to restrict their condemnation powers.
