Real Estate & Property Law

Minn Supremes: Property Can Be Taken To "Reawaken The Spirit And Vitality" Of City Without Statutory Development Agreement In Place

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

This just in: the Minnesota Supreme Court has issued an opinion in a case we've been watching, Eagan Economic Development Authority v. U-Haul Co. of Minnesota, No. A08-767 (July 29, 2010). This is the case in which the Court of Appeals invalidated a quick-take because the redevelopment authority -- which attempted to take property to "reawaken the spirit and vitality of [that] part of Eagan" (and, less soul-stirringly, to "replac[e] a market obsolete regional shopping center") -- could not condemn property without first having a binding development agreement in place. 

The Supreme Court reversed. The court held:

The Eagan Economic Development Authority is bound by the prohibitions and requirements of the "Redevelopment Plan for the Establishment of the Cedar Grove Redevelopment Project Area" it prepared, adopted, and submitted to the Eagan City Council for approval, which approval was granted.

Subsection 1-8 of the "Redevelopment Plan for the Establishment of the Cedar Grove Redevelopment Project Area," which deals with the proposed reuse of property, does not require the Eagan Economic Development Authority to have a binding development agreement before it can condemn private property in this circumstance.

More, after we've had a chance to digest the opinion. Our summary of the court of appeals' opinion is here.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on July 29, 2010 (boomark / email).