ST. LOUIS—Small business and property owners challenging Brentwood, Missouri’s labeling of their properties as blighted will appeal a court ruling blessing the designations. By blighting the properties, the city will be able to use eminent domain to turn the land over to a private redevelopment company. The Institute for Justice (IJ), which defends property rights nationwide, is defending the businesses.
“The court’s decision allows Brentwood to use eminent domain to take 75 different properties in a normal commercial neighborhood because of minor property conditions like peeling paint and cracked pavement on just some of the properties,” said IJ Attorney Bob Belden. “The decision is out of step with the reforms the Missouri Legislature adopted to curb just this sort of blight abuse, and, unless corrected on appeal, it represents the ever-present threat that local governments throughout Missouri can take private property just because the government thinks it will be used better by a private developer.”
The businesses fighting for their locations are varied, family-owned operations: Feather-Craft Fly Fishing, a retail and online operation passed down from father to son; Time for Dinner, a meal prep business owned by two sisters; and Convergence Dance and Body Center, offering dance classes and chiropractic care, and owned by a husband and wife. The brothers who own the building leased by Feather-Craft have also joined the lawsuit.
“This is disappointing, but we won’t give up our locations, which mean so much to us and our customers,” said Amy Stanford, one of the owners of Time for Dinner. “We’ve always worked to keep our businesses in great shape and we know we’re in the right.”
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kelo v. New London that taking property through eminent domain solely for private economic development did not violate the U.S. Constitution. In reaction, 47 states, including Missouri, enacted new protections that only permitted eminent domain for clear public uses, such as roads or schools.
Since Missouri law does not allow cities to take property for private development, Brentwood also pinned the blight designations on the potential for a 500-year flood. But the city just completed a $120 million project to upgrade the streets and mitigate flooding in the Manchester Corridor.
The court determined that in a case where the government’s evidence of blight is “fairly debatable,” the government’s position should prevail. At a four-day trial held earlier this year, the businesses presented evidence that their properties were not blighted and that if the same standards of blight were applied across the city, numerous government buildings would also be considered blighted.
“Missouri law requires substantial evidence of blight to take properties using eminent domain. This decision effectively ignores that statutory requirement and blesses Brentwood’s assertion that it can take property for no other reason than minor defects,” said IJ Attorney Bobbi Taylor. “We look forward to presenting these issues on appeal.”
The Missouri Supreme Court could choose to hear the appeal directly or allow an intermediate court to consider the case first.