Legal Issues

Public use can be defined as an area or a tract of land owned by the government and designated for use by the public. This can range from sidewalks, parks to large interstate highways. One way or another all of us have used a form of public use land either by walking on a sidewalk, relaxing in a park or driving down the interstate. At times the State will need to appropriate areas of private land for the sake of development for the welfare of the general public. It is at this point that we enter into the realm of eminent domain.

Eminent domain is the power possessed by the state over all property within the state, specifically its power to appropriate property for a public use. An example of this is the extension of the stub-end of Highway 58 west from Highway 99 to connect to Bakersfield citys West Side Parkway. The extension is a much needed addition in order to connect the citys dead end freeways to each other bringing much needed relief to the nearly 400,000 metro area residents who need such a connection due to their commuting needs. In exchange though nearly a hundred homeowners will have to forcibly sell their homes to the government so that the extension can be built.

It all boils down to this one question do the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many In most cases the answer is no. The homeowners will of course be appropriately compensated for their property and the 400,000 urban residents in the area will be able to have their freeway access. It may seem grossly unfair on the part of the homeowners however if you were the metro area residents who had to deal with massive snarl ups in commuting traffic due to congested streets and there was a solution readily available nearby to resolve this issue what do you think you yourself would do In this case the number of metro residents who need the use of the freeway far outweighs the needs of the homeowners.