Eminent Domain

Eminent Domain Imagine having a home in a beautiful neighborhood where your family started a life for themselves, now imagine the government coming in and with one fell swoop, destroy your neighborhood in order to make room for a new golf course. Also, in order to compensate you for the loss of your home they hand you a check as if it were to make up for all the love and memories lost. It is an issue that many home owners and some business owners can tell you about from personal experience, when the government took over their properties in order to make room for a new school, new railroad or golf course and they call it eminent domain. The Fifth Amendment, gives the government the right to use its power of eminent domain, and the due process

But on the other hand, eminent domain has been the result of many home owners feeling more stressed and pressured to leave their homes that they otherwise would have stayed in if it weren’t for the government forcing them out. For example, in West Palm Beach, Florida a couple, John and Wendy Zamecnik, were victims of eminent domain. During the mid-1980’s, about three hundred homes were sold to give plenty of room for a brand new golf course to be built. Although many of the families within this particular neighborhood sold their homes with ease and went on with their lives, John and Wendy were not going to give their home up without a

Lewis makes an interesting point when he is explaining that eminent domain is often times given such a negative connotation. He talks about how people only focus on the scandals that are brought to light concerning the government utilizing their right to eminent domain. Lewis also explains his point when he says, “In a rural environment, almost everyone agrees that it would be a justifiable sacrifice to take a rancher's land to build dams and lakes for providing water supply or electrical power to our cities' millions” (Planetizen). In many cases eminent domain gives a wonderful opportunity for a city to benefit from a much better resource such as a hospital, a police station, or a library. It may be a loss for the people who have to leave their homes to make way for these new developments, but in the long run it boosts the cities’ growth and gives the residents a chance to take advantage of something they may get more use out of rather than just another farm or