Rein in actual condemnations, not zoning

THE HOUSE PLAN to make cities and counties pay property owners when they rezone land is so awful that it’s easy to overlook a long-overdue change in the so-called takings legislation set for debate today.

We just hope that legislators don’t make the mistake of sticking by their attack on “regulatory takings” and backing off the smart proposal to strip some entities of the power to condemn property.

The takings issue is before our Legislature and legislatures across the country because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t prevent a town from making homeowners sell their property for commercial development.

While there’s no reason to believe anyone in South Carolina would try such a thing, the ruling has triggered a much-needed look at our eminent domain laws. The problem here isn’t what government can condemn for public use as much as which units of government can condemn property.

That authority currently extends not only to cities and counties but also to colleges, several state agencies and even special purpose districts. What colleges, special purpose districts and many state agencies have in common is that they are governed by appointed board members, who rarely can be removed unless they violate the law; that means they are unaccountable to the public for their actions. Amazingly, the lawmakers who are so worried about how elected officials zone land had originally proposed to let colleges and universities retain the power to make property owners sell their land.

Fortunately, the House Judiciary Committee has corrected that, with an amendment that would take away colleges’ condemnation power. This is just basic good sense: Forcing someone to sell their property is an awesome power, and one that should only be exercised by elected bodies or agencies that are directly accountable to elected officials.

Even with the committee amendment, lawmakers still have some work to do to get this right, though. The bill before the House makes the constitutionally questionable Budget and Control Board the super-condemnor of public property. If colleges, special purpose districts or most state agencies want someone’s land, they would take their case to this five-member board, composed of the governor, two top legislators, the treasurer and the comptroller general.

That is a particularly offensive idea when it comes to special purpose districts, those special little governments created and controlled by legislators to do the work that cities and counties should be doing. These duplicative entities drain resources from legitimate city and county governments, and shouldn’t even exist; we certainly don’t need the state interfering in local decision-making by approving their plans to compete with cities and counties. If special purpose districts want land condemned, they should convince their county councils to do it. We would prefer to see colleges and universities go to their cities and counties for condemnation authority as well; but they are state agencies, so it makes some sense for the state to make that call.

If the House will fix these problems and strip out the unneeded and unjustifiable attack on local zoning authority, this will be a good change to state law. But if representatives insist on setting up roadblocks to local communities’ ability to protect themselves from undesirable development, it should be killed.

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