Legalectric

Bruce Moreland had a comment recently:

I am concerned about the use of unfunded eminent domain, by which I mean the situation when a city zones land for a use that essentially locks the landowner out of using their land as they might want. In particular, although I am very proud of the Dundas-Bridgewater Annexation Agreement and the fact that it identifies and protects bluffs, I also have to reconcile that with the fact that we have effectively taken the land from the landowner since they can no longer develop that land.

It looks to me like what he describes as “unfunded eminent domain” is a constructive taking, where the government in this case makes a land use determination that prohibits many uses (any use?) of the land by the landowner. Can the landowner use it at all? How are landowners compensated for this? They’re not. Hmmmmmm… sounds like a problem to me.

FYI – eminent domain is used to take land for public use, emphasis on use of some sort or another. This Bridgewater example sounds like a conservation easement of sorts.

Here’s some food for thought from today’s STrib on-line:
Developers eye Mojave land
In my past life in a Petercar, I spent a lot of bleary-eyed Sunday nights and Monday mornings in the Mojave desert, roaring down Cajon to deliver in the wee hours, loaded out and back up the hill Tuesday afternoon, and I grew to appreciate its subtle and fragile beauty.

Back to Minnesota, I have problems with the Dundas-Bridgewater agreement because it’s just too much, too big, it welcomes pressures to develop beyond what the infrastructure, and ultimately the land itself, can support. I’ll see if it’s on-line, I have a hard copy — everyone should take a look at the wastewater agreement between Dundas and Northfield, because under that agreement, Dundas cannot provide sewer services to this big of an area with this large anticipated use. Another problem… they should have negotiated this prior to the annexation.

Question for the Truth Squad: I heard a rumor that Rice County has asked Northfield to bring sewer out to the County 1 and County 46 intersection! Like the corporate welfare that Owatonna gave to Cabela’s! Is this true? What did the City have to say?

The False Objectivity piece, by Scott Schumacher, and Can we democratize knowledge from Rob Brown, got me thinking about blogging, the purpose and uses, and I realized I regard it as I do Community Radio, not to be confused with staid ol? Public Radio, i.e., MPR, yawn… Community Radio, and Independent Public Radio too, is radio of the people, epitomized by the title of a program at KFAI run by the women?s collective ?We Want You to Know!? Good radio tells you those things you need to know, but don?t want to know ? those things you wouldn?t encounter in a typical day that shake you up and leave you twitching. Good blooging should do the same. (Does that mean I shouldn’t bore you with transmission? Naaaaaaaa, that’s stuff you NEED to know! But I probably got more people riled up before I even went online. OK, I’ll sharpen it up, bare my teeth. Manana.)

Segue back to my friend Jay, who sent the following piece from the Advocate. He has just discovered blogs, and as a 1890?s hippie faggot born in the wrong century, he is now making peace with his computer, having realized that trying to make a computer do something need not be painful for either party. This is a guy who grew all his own food in Prestigious East Phillips, a class A chef from Faegre’s and Loring, rehabbed his house mostly with hand tools, sews his own clothes ? this is a guy who a grandmotherly black woman in Richmond stopped on the street with an appreciative, ?Honey, you sure have STYLE!?

Jay?s been thinking about the power of blogs, as have I when I want to 86 the ?deals? of Bill Grant of the Izaak Walton League, or when ATC?s attorney Jeff Rauh said he found me through my blog. It?s a one person operation, cheap and easy, it harks back to the days of the early printing presses and papers that spurred the American Revolution. Could this be the advent of another? BLOG ON!

From Jay from the Advocate: Jeff vs. the bloggers. I had trouble getting to it, you may have to do a search of the title.

John Aravosis, the blogger who outed Jeff Gannon/James Guckert, the prostitute cum ?White house reporter,? regards his work as a necessary moral equalizer — here’s a quote from the Advocate:

Aravosis says he thinks a lot about the consequences of what he?s doing and that so far he is happy with the political fallout?
Asked about the ethics of outing people, he adds, ?I don?t jump up and down and say ?Yeah!? when I learn these things about people. I still feel guilty?particularly since some of them clearly have a lot of issues. But I asked my mom about it. I told her I worried about what my information could do to people, and she said, ?Do you really think someone like Dr. Laura is asking if the hateful things she?s saying against gay people are going to hurt my John? Of course not.? You are not really being nasty if you have a higher purpose of exposing people for who they really are.?

We’ve got a lot of work to do, don’t we, folks?

p.s. A comment to a post was all about dog training… cute … yes, it’s true, I am going to obedience school (Kenya is going too).

The saga continues! Here are two articles from today’s Waseca County News:

Blooming Grove Township: Speaking up on power plant issue

Plus a Letter to the Editor from the Town Board Chair’s father-in-law, a farmer who held out against the gas comnpany 37 years ago! As did my client’s father-in-law, Clarence Prehn, an amazing guy who so many years ago fought for landowner rights to prevent a private corporation from taking land for profit through eminent domain, and who worked to protect the tax base of the Township and County. Here we are, deja vu all over again. Gene Miller’s editorial in today’s paper.

Keep that radio on — MPR should be running the Arrowhead transmission and ATC/TRANSLink story tomorrow or the next day.

Someday soon, the rest of the story on the Biennial Transmission Meeting and Capx2020.

Today is the SE Minnesota Zone Transmission Plan meeting.

They’ll be talking about SE region projects, including new transmission and upgrades.

What’s scary is they’ll also be talking about CapX 2020, the transmission owners’ dream.

The Capx 2020 report was to be released yesterday, but it’s not on their website. The interim report is, so you can read that while you’re cooling your heels.

And now, a couple hours after I first posted this, here’s the final CapX 2020 report!!! CHECK P. 7, it shows 16,712 MW in the MISO queue, and they’re doing a chicken little over “needing” 6,500MW in the same area? Um…. we’re a bit ahead of the game, even with liberal discounts for peaking and intermittent generation! We are not going to freeze in the dark in an incubator without a job, that much is clear.

Come on over to Rochester and let the Minnesota Transmission Owners know what you think of their plans. Learn what they’ve got in mind for your neighborhood.

… and people wonder why Costa Rica is starting to look inviting…

Here are two articles from the Waseca County News on the Exemption from Utility Personal Property Tax for Simon Industries’ proposed 325MW power plant to be built on the gas dome in Blooming Grove Township:

Questioning support of power plant

Blooming Grove Township asks for inclusion in bill

Here’s Nancy Prehn’s editorial about the proposal:

Stop Tax Giveaways!