Blight Statutes: Dealing with Eminent Domain Reform

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, many states acted to limit the government’s ability to condemn property for economic development purposes. However, few of these legislative initiatives addressed the urban renewal statutes through which many local governments condemn “blighted” property and transfer the condemned property to private parties for economic development or other stated public purposes.

To help REALTORS® better understand this issue, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has worked with the law firm of Robinson and Cole in developing the following reports:

• Urban Blight: An Analysis of State Blight Statutes and Their Implications for Eminent Domain Reform (PDF: 860K) is a fifty-state review of blight statutes that traces the origins of state blight legislation, analyzes the blight statutes in all 50 states, extracts the commonalities and distinctions between them, and summarize the status of blight law in America. This also serves as an important corollary to the earlier report on eminent domain statutes prepared by NAR and Robinson and Cole found here. (PDF: 197KB)
  
• Seven Principles for Reforming Blight Statutes: A Guide for State REALTOR® Associations (PDF: 187KB) identifies seven issues that need to be addressed for meaningful reform of blight statutes as they relate to eminent domain. Rather than model legislation, the report suggests alternative approaches that could be taken under seven principles for reform.

For more information on the issue of eminent domain, please visit the NAR Eminent Domain webpage.

For additional information on the two reports, please contact Bob McNamara, 202-383-1268, bmcnamara@realtors.org.

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