Opinion ID: 779379
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Legislatively Determined Public Purposes

Text: 50 The Plan Commission's stated purpose for the covenant vacation is the development of commercial property and the removal of empty homes. The Indiana legislature has addressed, in other enactments, the public purpose requirement of eminent domain procedures in areas of commercial development and vacated homes in blighted areas. The Plan Commission's statement of public use fails under either scenario. 51 First, under Indiana law, the Plan Commission may not condemn property if commercial development is the sole public purpose. In Indiana, local governments may designate areas economic development areas and establish redevelopment commissions based on findings that increased development in the region will promote employment, attract a new business enterprise, increase the property tax base, improve diversity of the economic base and create other similar benefits. Ind.Code 36-7-14-41(b)(4). Redevelopment commissions have several powers in economic development zones including purchasing, selling and leasing property, maintaining structures, providing financial assistance to local entities, and contracting to construct necessary structures. Ind. Code 36-7-14-12.2. However, Ind.Code 36-7-14-43(a)(7) specifically prohibits a commission from exercising the right of eminent domain in an economic development area. See also, Evansville v. Reising, 547 N.E.2d 1106, 1110 (Ind.Ct.App. 1989). Similarly, local commissions may not use eminent domain for industrial development but instead may only acquire by purchase, gift, or devise, and own, improve, maintain, sell, lease, convey, contract for, or otherwise deal in, real property for the development of industrial parks or industrial sites. Ind.Code § 36-7-13-3. Therefore, the Indiana legislature has determined that economic development on its own does not constitute a public purpose sufficient to satisfy the public use requirement inherent in the exercise of eminent domain under Indiana law. 52 Instead, redevelopment commissions must treat an area as blighted in order to use eminent domain to achieve the purpose of commercial development. Id. at 1111-12. Under Indiana law the clearance of blighted areas constitutes a public purpose sufficient to enable the exercise of eminent domain. Ind.Code § 36-7-14-2(a) (The clearance, replanning, and redevelopment of blighted areas under this chapter are public uses and purposes for which public money may be spent and private property may be acquired.). However, the determination of blight is a significant step that requires more than just a finding of a couple of vacant houses. See Ind.Code § 36-7-9-4.5. For vacant structures the Indiana legislature has authorized local governmental bodies to enact regulatory standards for repair and maintenance, and order repair or at most removal of the structure itself, providing certain procedural requirements are met. Id.; see also Ind.Code § 36-7-9-5. 53 Even if there were an argument that these structures constitute a blight, Indiana has established specific and detailed processes through which a local commission must go in order to make that determination. Ind.Code § 36-7-14-15. The code provides in part: 54 Whenever the redevelopment commission finds that an area in the territory under their jurisdiction has become blighted to an extent that cannot be corrected by regulatory processes or the ordinary operations of private enterprise without resort to this chapter, and that the public health and welfare will be benefitted by the acquisition and redevelopment of the area under this chapter, the commission shall cause to be prepared: 55
56 [the affected areas and designated public uses of those areas] 57 (2) lists of the owners of the various parcels of property proposed to be acquired; and 58 (3) an estimate of the cost of acquisition and redevelopment. 59 Ind.Code § 36-7-14-15. 60 Once these findings are made the redevelopment commission shall adopt a resolution declaring that the blighted area is a menace to the social and economic interest of the unit and its inhabitants. Id. The resolution must then be submitted to the plan commission which determines whether the resolution and the redevelopment plan conform to the plan of development for the unit and approve or disapprove the resolution and plan proposed. Ind.Code 36-7-14-16. 61 Obviously, the Plan Commission did not pursue this statutory option. Instead, it simply justified the vacation based on conclusory and largely unsupported statements as to the state of the homes on HNS properties. Because the Plan Commission has neglected to follow the statutory requirements for determining blight, they cannot now rely on that legislatively determined public use in order to justify their taking. To hold otherwise would obviate the procedural requirements of Indiana's blight code. Because the Plan Commission has not relied on a legislative determination of public use, the traditional deference given to those determinations is not appropriate in this case. 18