We covered several of the changes the Virginia General Assembly made in its most recent session in SB1158 in our post last week. This week we're covering the rest of them. (The changes to 25.1-204 dealing with title reports that were made in HB1690 and SB1158 were covered in our post week before last here.) [...]
The Virginia General Assembly passed a number of different changes to Virginia’s eminent domain code this year, most of which are contained in SB1158. (The changes to 25.1-204 dealing with title reports were covered in our post last week here.) SB1158 makes a change to Va. Code 8.01-187. That code section already provides a statutory [...]
What has to be included in your title report in if you want to proceed to condemnation of a property in Virginia? This important but somewhat arcane technial point has been the subject of quite a bit of legislative change and litigation in Virginia in the last couple years. This year's General Assembly session has [...]
A recent Virginia circuit court opinion in City of Waynesboro v. Hopeman Land Company serves as a cautionary tale for condemning authorities, emphasizing the importance of precision, planning, and adherence to statutory requirements. At the heart of this case was a common municipal objective: stormwater management. The City of Waynesboro identified a parcel of land [...]
In eminent domain proceedings in federal court, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 71.1(h) provides that "the court tries all issues" except for the amount of just compensation, which generally must be decided by a jury if "a party demands one." Appellate courts have not provided much guidance on the procedural aspects of Rule 71.1(h), until [...]
This year's IRWA's Annual Education Conference is set be the best one ever, and that's saying something for a conference that has been running for 71 straight years! The schedule of speakers will provide multiple days of high quality educational material across all aspects of the right of way profession. We're incredibly excited that this [...]
The 2025 Virginia Eminent Domain Conference , this year sub-titled "Furthering the Discussion About What is Working and What Isn't" will again be at the lovely Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia. May 8-9, 2025 Dave Arnold and I will be presenting on two different interesting topics again this year. Dave will be presenting along with [...]
The Court of Appeals of Virginia issued a relatively recent decision in Town of Iron Gate v. Simpson, 82 Va. App. 38 (2024), which is essentially a primer on what not to do as a condemning authority facing an inverse condemnation case. Background of the Case The opinion indicates that Simpson owned property in the [...]
Article I Section 11 of the Virginia Constitution provides in part that no property shall be taken or damaged except for public use and also provides that it is not for public use if the primary use is for private gain, private benefit, private enterprise, increasing jobs, increasing tax revenue or economic development. The condemnor [...]
Eminent domain and right of way entail a constant balance between the public need and private property rights. However, from our perspective, conferences and continuing education courses have in more recent years tended to focus on one side--the landowner’s side--rather than the side where the day-to-day work is performed that gives us infrastructure projects, i.e. [...]