Ravenwood - 09/20/05 07:00 AM
Fulton County (GA) is attempting to seize land from a school to build... a school. The AJC reports that the county is threatening imminent domain seizure if the property owners refuse to sell.
The Fulton County school system wants to buy the Weber School site and use the land to build a new elementary school. In a strongly worded letter sent earlier this month, the school district indicated that unless Weber sold the property by today, the school board would use eminent domain to obtain the land.If county officials were smart, they'd have waiting until the private school was complete. With the classrooms already in place, the public school kids could have moved in right away.Fulton school officials offered $18.7 million for the site, at Abernathy and Roswell roads, but Weber school leaders say they have no desire to sell.
"We are not going to back down," said Steve Berman, the president of the school's board. "We are building here."
Parents and students said they were shocked to learn of Fulton's interest in their property at such a late date. Construction is set to begin in a few weeks.
UPDATE: What a difference 24 hours makes. After all the uproar, the Fulton County School Board is backing down.
Category: Fall of Western Civilization
Comments (2) top link me
Looks like those jackasses in our supreume court have realy created a mess
Posted by: screaming eagle at September 20, 2005 10:12 PMThis has nothing to do with Kelo. Local governments are not prohibited by the Constitution from using eminent domain to seize land for use as a public school, provided they pay just compensation. Does eminent domain suck? Yes, but it does exist. I know of no one who believes that the U.S. Constitution prohibits local governments from taking privately-owned land to build a public school.
Posted by: Ben Pugh at September 21, 2005 7:07 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
