Homes Rarely Acquired For Redevelopment In SF Bay Area

3 November 2006 - 10:00am

According to a survey by the San Francisco Chronicle, redevelopment agencies in the Bay Area and throughout the state very rarely use their powers of eminent domain to take private residences for redevelopment purposes.

"The Chronicle canvassed the Bay Area's 80 redevelopment agencies -- the local agencies charged with rehabilitating downtrodden neighborhoods and promoting economic development -- because the main argument advanced by supporters of a property rights initiative on Tuesday's state ballot is that Proposition 90 will stop governments from taking people's houses on behalf of developers"

Only two owner-occupied bay area homes have been acquired through government use of eminent domain in the last decade.

"Opponents say Prop. 90 backers are scaring California homeowners to promote a measure that would raise costs for revitalizing blighted urban areas and limit governments' ability to control land use."

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, November 2, 2006
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Planners, architects, artists, and other community members can make the exploratory walk a key tool in re-making places, stemming from the emotions and atmospheres perceived by people who live there or visit them, and plan outward from the experiential, toward trajectories, shapes, and physical structures.