....and destroy a neighborhood that's been there since the civil war to make a highway to Chiefland.

Hmmm...freedom to live in your home
vs. freedom to travel conveniently somewhere else.

Such a difficult decision.

Argument against each:

1) Well you don't HAVE to live on this property, which your great-great grandparents built with their own hands from foundation to roof. You could just eliminate any possibility of passing down your family home to the next generation and get a condo by the beach.

2) Oh yeah? Well YOU could just - continue driving off the highway and around that area, taking the exact same 30 minutes that you've always taken to get around it, instead of shaving off 20 minutes of your drive.

Sometimes, corrupt local Governments will authorize eminent domain or tax-free municipal bonds to build retail stores, claiming that they are needed for the best interest of the local community. Usually, it is not a good application of eminent domain.

But, when the Corps of Engineers builds a dam to protect millions of dollars worth of downstream private property from flood damage, they need to create a lake upstream of the dam. In that case, they need to purchase a large number of houses using eminent domain. Without the power of eminent domain, most flood control dams could never be built.

Agreed. There are lots of good uses for it but have heard of some terrible ones.

AGREE!!…………unless it involves taking my property and the home I’ve lived in for many years. Guess it depends on your perspective

That would be a great addition to I 75.

So, the bottom line is that eminent domain is a good thing, just so long as it doesn’t inconvenience me

The biggest problem is they rarely pay what a property is actually worth. Here in Massachusetts an acquaintance just relayed a story where the town kept lowering his dad's tax assessment for 4 years. He didn't know why but they kept lowering his house value and he didn't complain as he was paying less property tax. Then they took his house via eminent domain with a deflated price based on the tax assessment. Now I don't know if that story was accurate, but wouldn't surprise me.