In a story titled “Honolulu notifying landowners in way of planned rail route,” the Honolulu Advertiser reports “The city has started notifying residents living in the path of the planned $3.7 billion elevated commuter rail that all or part of their properties may be condemned. The letters, which are being sent out in batches, don’t specify how much property may be needed along the 20-mile East Kapolei to Ala Moana route.”
The proposed rail project, if it survives an initiative vote this November, is shaping up to the biggest public works and largest singular use of eminent domain in Hawaii’s history (I say “singlar,” since the Land Reform Act — the law challenged in Hawaii Hous. Auth. v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984) — might still be considered the largest use of eminent domain, but it was piecemeal). I guess our December 2006 prediction of the “dear homeowner” letters has come to pass. We’ve posted on the issue of eminent domain for the rail project before here and here (with link to a podcast on the subject).