Iowa's Eminent Domain Issues: Past and Present

The landscape of Iowa is one of many hills and valleys. There are a lot of town with not many spectacular things to gaze at as you drive through Iowa. When people first migrated to Iowa they saw a whole lot of foliage. The land was very bountiful, meaning that the soil was good for farming techniques. Things such as corporate farms and urban sprawl have not done the ecosystem of Iowa keep its pristine nature. People who complain about such things certainly have a point that we should be worried about environmental degradation. The thing the activists don't realize is that industry is going to what it wants or leave the area to go to a place where there will be less regulation. Groups are upset about things like "Blockbuster video stores" and chain restaurants going up in there town. (Mavroudis pg.1) When dealing with the issue of urban sprawl, often times people not only worry that their quaint little Iowa town is becoming too commercialized, but indeed the bigger cities in Iowa like Des Moines can become neglected and "more deserted." (Carver pg. 1)

Eminent domain prevention legislation was something that was tackled by the Iowa legislature in 2006, but then "Governor Tom Vilsack vetoed it." (Planning pg. 1) The legislature would go on to override the veto, but due to the executive branch taking a contrary position to the legislature's actions the matter is in gridlock in the courts. Eminent domain is one of the human activities that makes Iowa so rapidly lose its natural resources. Eminent domain is a concept that has been around for a very long time with many state and local government invoking the privilege in order to create a project that in their minds would be benefic to the community they represent. Eminent domain in laymen's terms is the seizure of private property for the use of public development.