Real Estate & Property Law

Eminent Domain in the Deindustrialization

By Alan Ackerman

pjstar.com

"It's sad, we'd like to be able to do something to help put people back to work, whether it's as a steel mill or something else," said Calbow, who also is vice president of United Steel Workers Local 7367.

But after paying the firm about $12,000, the conclusion is that county governments don't have much ability to intervene in such situations, Calbow said.
 

Putnam County had the desire to acquire the land of the former ArcelorMittal USA steel plant.  This plant was purchased and is now being disassembled, likely to be moved to another country.  Putnam County, located on the Upper Illinois River Valley, desired to acquire the plant by eminent domain.   

The one thing the county could have done in this situation is attempt to obtain legislation authorizing the county to acquire.  Had this been done, maybe the county would have succeeded in retaining the plant in order to create a start up steel facility in the future, thereby retaining jobs.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on May 14, 2010 (boomark / email).