Eminent Domain Controversy
In late 2005 the City of Stockbridge engaged in a highly controversial preemptive use of eminent domain to buy over 16 acres (65,000 m2) of land near the current city hall running along East Atlanta Road. The City reportedly wanted to build a new city hall, park/square, and a small tract of land for new and more desirable business to incorporate a new image for the city. Stockbridge became the focus of national news and was also one of the largest issues in the 2006 Georgia General Assembly and their efforts to prevent abuse of eminent domain.
Many of the citizens of Stockbridge and Henry County were shocked, surprised, and outraged by the apparent abuse of eminent domain by the city.Early in 2006, a protest was organized by the NAACP and supported by the Republican and Libertarian parties from the county. Syndicated Atlanta talk show host Neal Boortz said during his show, "Private property rights are dead in Stockbridge, Georgia" and called members of the Stockbridge City Council, "sorry bastards."
The Henry County Board of Commissioners took a stance on the issue by unanimously approving a non-binding resolution that the county would not take land for economic development purposes. Although the county legally has no say of what the City of Stockbridge can do with its land and its use of eminent domain. Many have said it was just a political strategy being that Henry County has shown recently in voting history to be one of the most conservative counties in the Atlanta metro area.
The conflict between the city and the property owners came to an end on February 2, 2007 as the Georgia Court of Appeals threw out the condemnation. Only one store, a local florist, beat the eminent domain and was allowed to keep its store and property. An infamous brick fence was erected around the florist shop to separate it from the new City Hall. It is well known in the area for its awkward shape.
However, in October 2009 the battle between the owner of the florist shop and the city started up again. When the florist shop put up signs for a mayoral and city council candidates who opposed the eminent domain abuse, workers at city hall started putting up bales of hay to block the sign. When a local Television reporter asked who ordered the bales of hay to be put up, city workers refused to comment.
Read more about this topic: Stockbridge, Georgia
Famous quotes containing the words eminent, domain and/or controversy:
“It will do you no good if I get over this. A doctor’s reputation is made by the number of eminent men who die under his care.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“You are the harvest and not the reaper
And of your domain another is the keeper.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)