Land use and zoning attorney John P. Slagter reports:
In a dramatic departure from the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London (2005), 126 S. Ct. 326, the Supreme Court of Ohio unanimously held in Norwood v. Horney (2006) that without an additional public benefit, a property cannot be appropriated through eminent domain powers merely to provide an economic benefit to the community. Furthermore, the Court held that courts shall apply heightened scrutiny when reviewing statutes about eminent-domain powers and that the term ‘deteriorating areas’ is unconstitutional as used as a standard for taking property because inherently incorporates the future of the property, as opposed to examining the property as it is at the time of the taking.