Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: eminent domain

Again, more facts are needed. If taking part of your property results in the untaken part being damaged, which is a severence damage, your are entitled to compensation as to that portion of your land too. But you need to supply the facts of your case in order for anyone to give you a more detailed answer.

Re: eminent domain

Yes, eminent domain proceedings can be brought more than once by the same agency or utility against the same parcel. California has a modern and comprehensive statutory scheme for handling eminent domain cases; it is codified as Code of Civil Procedure sections 1230.010 through 1273.050, about 100 pages of fine print, and embellished by thousands of pages of court decisions.

Among those provisions are laws and decisions allowing a property owner who is being harassed by on-and-off, delayed or piecemeal condemnations to counter-sue the public agency on a put-up or shut up concept, sort of "pay me now or never" for the land you think you might need.

A condemnation proceeding is generally in two parts; first, the right of the agency to condemn is determined; this requires showing that it has the power of eminent domain, that the exercise of the power is necessary for a permissible purpose, and other matters. Once the right to condemn is determined, there is a valuation trial, and the property owner can insist of a jury.

As the previous answer pointed out, there is an important concept called "severance damages" requiring the valuation award to take into consideration that the remaining property may be made less valuable per square foot, even though it is a smaller parcel where value per square foot is customarily thought to be higher. In other words, dividing a two-acre parcel worth $500,000 into four buildable lots often results in each of the new 1/2-acre lots being worth $200,000 or so apiece. However, when the "subdivision" is done by the government, without giving a hoot about your plans, you may have a situation where a buildable two-acre parcel worth $500,000 has 1.6 acres condemned off it; the owner gets $400,000 as a condemnation award for the 80% of his property taken, but if there is a half-acre zoning minimum for a single family detached home, the remaining property is worth less than $100,000. This is where severance damages come into play.

The problem with severance damages is that it is necessary to prove beyond mere speculation what you could have done with the full parcel that you now can't do with the smaller piece. You may have had plans that, if brought into fruition, would make the parcel valuable, but your severance award is probably going to be based on a hard-nosed appraisal that may not take your vision into account. See CCP sections 1263.410 to 1263.450, but in doing self-study of the statutes keep in mind that what they really mean depends upon all those prior court decisions interpreting the code. See, e.g., City of Carlsbad v. Rudvalis (2003) 109 Cal.App.4th 667.

Re: eminent domain

Our CA attorney has many years of experience in real estate and I spent five years with the attorney general's office in Texas going to jury trials in condemnation cases. So we can represent you in your case. If you can prove that you have had a development planned, then you have the potential to do well in this matter. Of course we would need to know more to tell you more.