Brentwood’s Arguments About its Blight Designation and Eminent Domain Don’t Hold Up

ARLINGTON, Va.—Brentwood, Missouri has designated blocks of the Manchester Road Corridor as blighted, a first step in an envisioned plan to redevelop the neighborhood. Several small businesses are fighting those blight designations in court with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to prevent their locations from being subject to eminent domain.

In its recent communications about the controversy, Brentwood has tried to downplay the threat of eminent domain. But the businesses fighting the blight designation have little choice but to fight in court now or face the threat of rapidly losing their properties in condemnation proceedings—proceedings in which they would face daunting odds if the blight determination is upheld.

Three important facts:

1. First, by enacting the blight determination, the city has given itself the power to use eminent domain at will. The businesses in the Manchester Corridor have that threat hanging over them for as long as the blight determination remains in place. Missouri lawmakers created a judicial-review provision allowing people subject to a blight determination to immediately challenge it rather than having to wait in suspense for a condemnation action to come at the city’s whim.

2. Second, Brentwood’s stated motivation in enacting the blight determination was to get the power of eminent domain.  Section 1 of the ordinance enacting the blight determination specifically authorizes eminent domain, the development plan expressly contemplates eminent domain, and correspondence between the city and its blight consultant to initiate the 2023 blight determination expressly said: “re-blighting the area” was necessary specifically “to retain the eminent domain capability.” 

3. Third, if the city actually wanted to disclaim eminent domain, it should do so, rather than making vague hints in press releases. It has done nothing legally to prevent the future use of eminent domain and has not even rejected it in its public statements. 

“Brentwood is trying to downplay the threat of eminent domain it has created by declaring the Manchester Corridor blighted,” said IJ Attorney Ben Field. “But this is a PR-move that defies legal fact and the city’s own stated motivations. What Brentwood is doing is exactly what Missouri lawmakers were trying to stop when they reformed the state’s eminent domain laws.”