[Info-vax] Completely OT: Frank Lloyd Wright

[David Froble]

Bob Koehler wrote:
> In article <k67bku$rgk$1 at dont-email.me>, David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
>> What I'd object to is someone who has put his own money into something 
>> losing that investment.  If someone who has bought some property isn't 
>> allowed to do what he intended, that's exactly what happens, he loses 
>> his money.
> 
>    Investments carry risks.

I don't disagree with you in general, but, maybe investment was a poor 
choice of words above.  What I meant was say, perhaps, I bought a 
property because of the view, or perhaps (knowing myself) a tract of 
land suitable for airport operations.

For someone else to decide that they want the property, and use 
political help to acquire it, is definitely theft.  However, if a 
highway needs the property, that is a different matter.  A highway will 
benefit the community, and cannot be built in pieces, it needs to be whole.

I remember some city deciding they wanted a particular business, or 
whatever, and used eminent domain to take the land off the current 
owners.  That in my opinion was improper use of eminent domain.  That 
was theft.

There is the chance of misuse of eminent domain, which is why some 
people are very suspicious of it.

Another thing that is tough is "fair market value".  Say for example I 
have a 3000 ft turf runway.  The land is perfectly flat and smooth, and 
the grass is well developed.  To me there is significant value to this 
land over and above just acreage.  However, someone else might just look 
at it as acreage, and value it as such.  Would it be fair to me for all 
my investment into grading, planting, and such to be ignored?

True story.  My daughter and her husband were looking at refinancing 
their house.  The bank sent out an assessor to set a value on the 
property.  Now, the house is maybe 800 ft from the road.  Some people 
value their privacy.  This particular assessor set a lower value because 
of the distance to the road.  To this day I have not found one other 
person, including other assessors, to agree with that logic.  So, things 
that can be subjective can be very unfair.  (When it was challenged, 
even the bank disagreed with the assessor.)