Here’s a quick roundup of eminent domain related stories news around Texas.
Survey: support for eminent domain reform
Source: KWKT- FOX 44
The Texas Farm Bureau headquartered in Waco says a survey conducted of Texas voters shows strong support of reform for the use of eminent domain to obtain land from citizens.
Under eminent domain, the government and some private entities may take land for what is determined to be ” the public good.”
A survey on the issue was conducted by the Eppstein Group of Fort Worth, commissioned by Farm Bureau.
The border wall is set to cut through a butterfly sanctuary
Source: National Geographic
Construction on a six-mile stretch of a steel and concrete wall along the Texas-Mexico border is expected to begin at the end of this month. But conservationists are urgently battling the government in court before it’s too late for the National Butterfly Center, a private piece of property owned by the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) that could see a wall slice through its grounds.
The 17-year-old center sits on 100 acres just south of Mission, Texas, a city with the Rio Grande River at its back and an hour north of the state’s southern tip.
Hurd says 1,000 Texas farmers could have land seized to build Trump’s border wall
Source: CBS News
Texas Rep. Will Hurd, the sole Republican representing a congressional district along the southern border, said more than 1,000 farmers in his state are at risk of having their land seized by the federal government to facilitate the construction of President Trump’s long-promised wall.
“In the great state of Texas, we care about a little thing called private property, and there’s going to be over 1,000 ranchers and farmers potentially impacted if the government comes in and takes their land,” Hurd said on “Face the Nation” Sunday.
UNT Set to Acquire Properties, Possibly by Eminent Domain
Source: NBC 5
The University of North Texas Systems Board of Regents has approved the acquisition of four privately owned properties on Avenue C through the use of eminent domain, if necessary.
The decision came last week with a focus on supporting the “continuing growth of the university,” according to a university statement sent to NBC 5.
Among the businesses in the cross-hairs is the New York Sub Hub, which has been family owned for four decades.
“It just seems a little unfair that we are a successful small business in Denton that prides itself in being a small business and they can just come in and say ‘you are going to have to find somewhere else,'” Owner Hunter Christiansen said.
