A Supreme Court decision last week that will give governments broader rights to take private property has stirred up several state and local lawmakers in Anchorage, who are already drafting legislation they say would protect private-property owners in Alaska.
State Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, said the decision permits "judicial thievery."
"I read about the case in the newspaper and was actually appalled," said Anchorage Assemblywoman Janice Shamberg.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that the city of New London, Conn., could use government's power of eminent domain to take 15 homes in an old residential area. They stood in the way of a project to build office space, a hotel, some new homes and a walkway along a river. Private developers would lease and build the new development.
The decision expanded the notion of the public uses for which governments would be permitted to take private property. Property could be taken to replace old houses, for example, with a more valuable economic development.
Shamberg and Assemblyman Allan Tesche held a news conference Monday at City Hall to announce they are introducing an ordinance at today's Assembly meeting to make sure the taking of private property in Anchorage is limited to land that will actually be used by the municipality or the public.
Assemblyman Chris Birch, who was standing in the back of the room for the Shamberg-Tesche event, said later that he had started working on a similar measure over the weekend.
"I certainly do support it," Birch said. "I don't think the government should be entitled to take property from one private citizen and hand it over to another private citizen."
He said the city might need to change the municipal charter instead of just passing a new law to limit the use of eminent domain in Anchorage.
Reps. Lynn and Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, said in a news release on Friday that they plan to introduce bills to protect private property owners throughout Alaska from government takings such as the one approved for New London.
"The Supreme Court decision allows government to run roughshod over individual property rights, so a developer can build a big-box store where your bedroom used to be," Lynn wrote in a letter to the editor Monday.
Daily News reporter Rosemary Shinohara can be reached at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.
