(2/8/06 editorial—link expires) regarding the dreamworld notion that Senator Torlakson has learned his lesson when it comes to making it easier for politicians to abuse eminent domain, Tom is still at it. SCA 12 is not dead or languishing. It’s just morphed into SB 1024.
The Times opined that it would keep a close watch on Torlakson’s assault on private property rights. Well, it can start by telling its readers about SB 1024, Chapter 3.6 (page 26, beginning at line 16— Section 50535.2.b).
This section reads:
b) To the extent that funds are available, the department shall
make loans for the development and construction of a housing
development project within close proximity to a transit station.
To be eligible for a loan, at least 15 percent of the units in the
proposed development shall be made available at an affordable
rent or at an affordable housing cost to persons of very low or
low income for at least 55 years. Developments assisted pursuant
to this subdivision shall be on parcels at least a portion of which
are located within one-quarter mile of a transit station. A housing
development project may include a mixed-use development
consisting of residential and nonresidential uses.
Torlakson still is going after private property, but instead of his loosey goosey notion of “blight” and the fiction that California law is more stringent, SB 1024 now simply justifies eminent domain abuse because a) it will be for affordable housing as part of transit village development; and b) there’ll be State funding for the projects within the gargantuan infrastructure bond SB 1024 proposes.
You’d a thunk that the Times, with all its resources, would have tracked this down already.
Summary: Torlakson and his East Bay syncophants (including Assemblypersons in waiting, builders and developers, and City Councils snowed by the League of California Cities) are STILL after your home, business, medical facility, senior home, school, playground, church, fallow land, etc., all in the name of “Smart Growth.”
Talk about putting your tax dollars to work.
