By JANE HOUIN
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hearings continued last week in subcommittee meetings of the Ohio House of on eminent domain reform.

But that hasn’t stopped existing cases from continuing to move to the Ohio Supreme Court involving property disputes between government and farmers.

Last week, the Ohio Supreme Court announced on its website that a property dispute between the city of Hamilton and a Fairfield Twp. farm owner has been accepted to go before the Ohio Supreme Court.

The Bonham family has been in a land dispute since 2000 with the city of Hamilton over a city-proposed bike path to be built along a hydraulic canal bordering the southern and eastern edges of the Bonham farm. After five years of failing to reach a settlement with the city, the family took the dispute to court.

The Bonham family contends their intentions were always to work out the dispute with the city rather than present it to a judge who may lack understanding of the case.

However, they said the city has been unwilling to work with them.
“Eminent domain reform is an enormously important issue for the farmers and agricultural interests of Ohio,” said Rocky Black, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) senior director of policy and political affairs. “If farms and private property are not protected from takeover by the highest possible legal standards, we have failed to protect the most basic of American rights.”

Government normally uses eminent domain authority to eliminate blighted property or to build highways, schools or other public use facilities. The ruling in last year’s Supreme Court Case Kelo v. New London expanded the meaning of public use that included taking land for private development.

Throughout the legislative session, OFBF members and officials have maintained a strong visual presence throughout the hearings, sporting large red sign buttons reading “Stop taking our property,” the group’s eminent domain slogan.

An Ohio task force was developed in 2006 to spearhead the movement for eminent domain reform in the state.

The result of the task force is being realized today with eminent domain reform bills moving through both the House (HB 5) and Senate (SB 7).

OFBF leaders and representatives have pushed hard for lawmakers to pass the strongest eminent domain law possible. OFBF believes SB 7 provides a stronger eminent domain reform than HB 5. Proceedings at the Statehouse are expected to lead to a compromise bill being finalized within the coming weeks.

“By our presence, we wanted to emphasize to the committee the importance of passing these proposals in their current form,” said Doug Foxx, OFBF political aide. “The abuse of eminent domain has long been a concern of Ohio farmers and we are glad to now see widespread public support to move this issue forward.”

While OFBF agrees that HB 5 makes positive changes to current framework, the organization believes that in order to pass the strongest eminent domain bill possible, the House should consider the more aggressive eminent domain bill, Senate Bill 7 (SB 7). The Ohio Senate passed SB 7 with a bipartisan 29-3 vote last week. The bill would provide a strong, unified eminent domain procedure across the state.

“The law favors the government. The process favors the government. And that’s just not right,” said Sen. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland, who introduced SB 7. He said, historically, government takings of private property have strayed from the purpose of benefiting the public.

SB 7 allows more public notice and input before eminent domain proceedings begin, requires elected officials to approve land takings when an involved agency is composed completely of appointed members, allows property owners to repurchase unused property; and has a high standard for declaring areas blighted (90 percent).

“Without more strenuous protections built into HB 5, I am afraid we will be right back where we are today – with the courts settling our land-taking disputes and dozens of different eminent domain procedures in use across Ohio,” said Jack Fisher, executive director of OFBF.

Meanwhile, cases like the Bonhan’s case will continue to make their way through the state’s court system.

This farm news was published in the June 27, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.