A national property-rights group held a press conference this afternoon outside of a house in Sugar Creek where Eleanor Miller raised eight children and put many pretty plants in the ground.
According to Sugar Creek officials, Miller’s land is "blighted," a designation that allows the city to take Miller’s and her neighbors’ homes via eminent domain. The property will be turned over to a private developer, who plans to build a supermarket and other businesses bound to generate more tax revenue than single-family homes, no matter how sweet the flowers smell.
Miller and other property owners are not leaving without a fight. “It is wrong to take a home from someone like me,” she said.
Miller was joined at the press conference by Scott Bullock, an attorney from the Institute for Justice, a well-funded libertarian public law firm. Bullock (pictured, with Sugar Creek resident Penelope Marth) said the Institute for Justice would consider representing the Sugar Creek residents.
A tall, beefy redhead wearing a suit and a cowboy boots stood on Miller’s driveway as the press conference unfolded. Anthony Martin is a property-rights ombudsman whose position was created when the state of Missouri passed a new eminent domain law in 2006.
On the job only a month, Martin said that he hadn’t had a chance to talk to Sugar Creek officials. But what he had heard sounded appalling. Nodding at Miller, a widow, he said: “This is the greatest generation losing their homes to a strip mall.”
Martin’s job, he said, is to educate property owners about their rights and to inform the public. He advises targeted property owners to make a ruckus. “You can’t throw too big of a fit too early,” he said.
Martin appears to come down with those who think the U.S. Supreme Court screwed up in 2005, when it upheld the power of local governments to seize property and hand it to a private developers. Ironically, though, the Missouri law that created Martin’s position allows just that. The new law simply added some new rules.
Still, Martin summoned outrage as he stood in front of Eleanor Miller’s house. He said that he’s made plans to visit other dubiously blighted properties across the state. “Monday I’ve got a day care I’m going to go visit,” he said. – David Martin
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