From the Wall Street Journal’s editorial section:

SEATTLE–The city of Burien, Wash., recently decided that a piece of property owned by the seven Strobel sisters that had long housed a popular diner-style restaurant was not upscale enough for the city’s ambitious “Town Square” development, which will feature condos, shops, restaurants and offices. Rather than condemn the property for a private developer and risk a lawsuit, Burien came up with a plan–it would put a road through the property, and the city manager told his staff to “make damn sure” it did. When a subsequent survey revealed that the road would not affect the building itself, but only sideswipe a small corner of the property, the staff developed yet another site plan that put the road directly through the building. A trial court concluded that the city’s actions might be “oppressive” and “an abuse of power”–but allowed the condemnation anyway. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed, and the Washington Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Read the rest for yourself and prepare to be discouraged and enraged.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 7:49 am and is filed under Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.