READ THE INITIATIVE
Proposition 98, the California Property Owner & Farmland Protection Act is simple -- it provides property rights protections for all.
Right now, government has the right to take private
property - our homes, family farms, mom-and-pop small businesses - to build a sports stadium, big-box chain store, or a hotel. Politically connected
special interests use and abuse government's power of eminent domain to take and develop private
property.
The is what the initiative does:
- Private property may not be taken by eminent domain
for private use under any circumstances (i.e. to build a shopping center, auto mall or industrial
park).
- Property may be taken by eminent domain only for public
use (i.e. freeway construction, parks, schools).
- Property may not be taken by government and used for
the same purposes (i.e. residential housing cannot be used for government
housing).
- Family farms and open space are protected from seizures
by government for the purpose of selling the natural
resources.
- If a public agency takes property under false pretenses,
or abandons its plans, the property must be offered
for sale to the original owner at the original price
and the property tax would be assessed at the value
of the property when it was originally condemned.
- If farmers or business owners are evicted by eminent
domain, they would be entitled to compensation for
temporary business losses, relocation expenses, business
reestablishment costs and other reasonable expenses.
- Government may not set the price at which property
owners sell or lease their property.
SECTION 1. STATEMENT OF FINDINGS
(a) Our state Constitution, while granting government
the power of eminent domain, also provides that the
people have an inalienable right to own, possess, and
protect private property. It further provides that
no person may be deprived of property without due process
of law, and that private property may not be taken
or damaged by eminent domain except for public use
and only after just compensation has been paid to the
property owner.
(b) Notwithstanding these clear constitutional guarantees,
the courts have not protected the people's rights from being violated by state and local governments
through the exercise of their power of eminent domain.
(c) For example, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Kelo v. City
of New London, held that the government may use eminent
domain to take property from its owner for the purpose
of transferring it to a private developer. In other
cases, the courts have allowed the government to set
the price an owner can charge to sell or rent his or
her property, and have allowed the government to take
property for the purpose of seizing the income or business
assets of the property.
(d) Farmland is especially vulnerable to these types of
eminent domain abuses.
SECTION 2. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
(a) State and local governments may use eminent domain
to take private property only for public uses, such
as roads, parks, and public facilities.
(b) State and local governments may not use their power
to take or damage property for the benefit of any private
person or entity.
(c) State and local governments may not take private property
by eminent domain to put it to the same use as that
made by the private owner.
(d) When state or local governments use eminent domain
to take or damage private property for public uses,
the owner shall receive just compensation for what
has been taken or damaged.
(e) Therefore, the people of the state of California hereby
enact the "California Property Owners and Farmland Protection
Act."
SECTION 3. AMENDMENT TO CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
Section 19 of Article I of the California Constitution is amended
to read:
SEC. 19(a) Private property may be taken or damaged only for
a stated public use and when just compensation, ascertained
by a jury unless waived, has first been paid to, or
into court for, the owner. The Legislature may provide
for possession by the condemnor following commencement
of eminent domain proceedings upon deposit in court
and prompt release to the owner of money determined
by the court to be the probable amount of just compensation.
Private property may not be taken or damaged for private
use.
(b) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Taken" includes transferring the ownership, occupancy, or
use of property from a private owner to a public agency
or to any person or entity other than a public agency,
or limiting the price a private owner may charge another
person to purchase, occupy or use his or her real property.
(2) "Public use" means use and ownership by a public agency or a regulated
public utility for the public use stated at the time
of the taking, including public facilities, public
transportation, and public utilities, except that nothing
herein prohibits leasing limited space for private
uses incidental to the stated public use; nor is the exercise of eminent domain prohibited to
restore utilities or access to a public road for any
private property which is cut off from utilities or
access to a public road as a result of a taking for
public use as otherwise defined herein.
(3) "Private use" means:
(i) transfer of ownership, occupancy or use of private
property or associated property rights to any person
or entity other than a public agency or a regulated
public utility;
(ii) transfer of ownership, occupancy or use of private
property or associated property rights to a public
agency for the consumption of natural resources or
for the same or a substantially similar use as that
made by the private owner; or
(iii) regulation of the ownership, occupancy or use of privately
owned real property or associated property rights in
order to transfer an economic benefit to one or more
private persons at the expense of the property owner.
(4) "Public agency" means the state, special district, county, city, city
and county, including a charter city or county, and
any other local or regional governmental entity, municipal
corporation, public agency-owned utility or utility district, or the electorate
of any public agency.
(5) "Just compensation" means:
(i) for property or associated property rights taken,
its fair market value;
(ii) for property or associated property rights damaged,
the value fixed by a jury, or by the court if a jury
is waived;
(iii) an award of reasonable costs and attorney fees from
the public agency if the property owner obtains a judgment
for more than the amount offered by a public agency
as defined herein; and
(iv) any additional actual and necessary amounts to compensate
the property owner for temporary business losses, relocation
expenses, business reestablishment costs, other actual
and reasonable expenses incurred and other expenses
deemed compensable by the Legislature.
(6) "Prompt release" means that the property owner can have immediate possession
of the money deposited by the condemnor without prejudicing
his or her right to challenge the determination of
fair market value or his or her right to challenge
the taking as being for a private use.
(7) "Owner" includes a lessee whose property rights are taken
or damaged.
(8) "Regulated public utility" means any public utility as described in Article XII,
section 3 that is regulated by the California Public Utilities
Commission and is not owned or operated by a public
agency. Regulated public utilities are private property
owners for purposes of this article.
(c) In any action by a property owner challenging a taking
or damaging of his or her property, the court shall
consider all relevant evidence and exercise its independent
judgment, not limited to the administrative record
and without deference to the findings of the public
agency. The property owner shall be entitled to an
award of reasonable costs and attorney fees from the
public agency if the court finds that the agency's actions are not in compliance with this section.
In addition to other legal and equitable remedies that
may be available, an owner whose property is taken
or damaged for private use may bring an action for
an injunction, a writ of mandate, or a declaration
invalidating the action of the public agency.
(d) Nothing in this section prohibits a public agency
or regulated public utility from entering into an agreement
with a private property owner for the voluntary sale
of property not subject to eminent domain, or a stipulation
regarding the payment of just compensation.
(e) If property is acquired by a public agency through
eminent domain, then before the agency may put the
property to a use substantially different from the
stated public use, or convey the property to another
person or unaffiliated agency, the condemning agency
must make a good faith effort to locate the private
owner from whom the property was taken, and make a
written offer to sell the property to him at the price
which the agency paid for the property, increased only
by the fair market value of any improvements, fixtures,
or appurtenances added by the public agency, and reduced
by the value attributable to any removal, destruction
or waste of improvements, fixtures or appurtenances
that had been acquired with the property. If property
is repurchased by the former owner under this subdivision,
it shall be taxed based on its pre-condemnation enrolled value, increased or decreased
only as allowed herein, plus any inflationary adjustments
authorized by subdivision (b) of Section 2 of Article XIIIA. The right to repurchase shall apply
only to the owner from which the property was taken,
and does not apply to heirs or successors of the owner
or, if the owner was not a natural person, to an entity
which ceases to legally exist.
(f) Nothing in this section prohibits a public agency
from exercising its power of eminent domain to abate
public nuisances or criminal activity;
(g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit
or impair voluntary agreements between a property owner
and a public agency to develop or rehabilitate affordable
housing.
(h) Nothing in this section prohibits the California Public
Utilities Commission from regulating public utility
rates.
(i) Nothing in this section shall restrict the powers
of the Governor to take or damage private property
in connection with his or her powers under a declared
state of emergency.
SECTION 4. IMPLEMENTATION AND AMENDMENT
This section shall be self-executing. The Legislature may adopt laws to further
the purposes of this section and aid in its implementation.
No amendment to this section may be made except by
a vote of the people pursuant to Article II or Article
XVIII.
SECTION 5. SEVERABILITY
The provisions of this section are severable. If any
provision of this section or its application is held
invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions
or applications that can be given effect without the
invalid provision or application.
SECTION 6. EFFECTIVE DATE
The provisions of this Act shall become effective on
the day following the election ("effective date"); except that any statute, charter provision, ordinance,
or regulation by a public agency enacted prior to January
1, 2007, that limits the price a rental property owner may
charge a tenant to occupy a residential rental unit
("unit") or mobile home space ("space") may remain in effect as to such unit or space after
the effective date for so long as, but only so long
as, at least one of the tenants of such unit or space
as of the effective date ("qualified tenant") continues to live in such unit or space as his or
her principal place of residence. At such time as a
unit or space no longer is used by any qualified tenant
as his or her principal place of residence because,
as to such unit or space, he or she has: (a) voluntarily vacated; (b) assigned, sublet, sold or transferred his or her tenancy
rights either voluntarily or by court order; (c) abandoned; (d) died; or he or she has (e) been evicted pursuant to paragraph (2), (3), (4) or (5) of Section 1161 of the Code of Civil Procedure or Section 798.56 of the Civil Code as in effect on January 1, 2007; then, and in such event, the provisions of this Act
shall be effective immediately as to such unit or space.
Download an official copy of the initiative text as
submitted to the California Attorney General here.
