Bill would limit eminent domain on land preserves

TREDYFFRIN » Land preservationists are hailing the introduction of legislation by a Chester County lawmaker designed to limit the use of eminent domain on land that has been set aside to be conserved as green or open space.

State Rep. Warren Kampf, R157th, of Tredyffrin, joined with two other legislators from Montgomery County in authoring House Bill 2468 in response to the Lower Merion School District’s re-

cent threat to acquire the recently opened Stoneleigh Preserve through the condemnation procedure to locate a new school complex there.

“The Lower Merion School District has decided to use eminent domain to condemn privately owned land permanently preserved by conservation easement, over the objections of many residents of the community,” Kampf said. “This bill will do what most people thought would have happened to all preserved land.”

This legislation proposes to amend the Eminent Domain Code to add a new section that would require any government agency to obtain Orphans’ Court approval before using eminent domain to take permanently preserved land. It would not prohibit the taking of such easement-controlled land, but would add a level of court scrutiny to the practice.

The procedure is similar to that found in the state’s Agricultural Area Security Law, which requires additional scrutiny before condemnation of agricultural lands by governmental entities. The Orphans’ Court is given authority in the Donated and Dedicated Property Act over certain transactions related to publicly owned lands held for public uses.

Bill Gladden, the director of the Chester County Office of Open Space Preservation, said he considered the bill a prudent step to protect the land that conservation trusts have worked to set aside from development. In Chester County, there are 49,486 acres of land that have been placed in conservation easements by non-profit preservation groups, such as Natural Lands, which owns the Stoneleigh property.

He pointed to the bill’s language that there be “no reasonable or prudent alternative” to the eminent domain condemnation of such land. “That seem like a locaical bar to set before we go and start undoing all the hard work and the investment made” in protecting land.

David Brown, a former West Vincent supervisor and liaison to that municipalities’ Open Space Committee, said that he had learned of the Lower Merion board’s attempt like other and found it “disgusting.”

Brown, a former longtime resident of Lower Merion, said he was surprised as anyone to learn that easement protected land could still be subject to condemnation. “I would not have thought so, and I don’t think the general public was aware either,” he said. “My impression is that the general public hates eminent domain. Just hates it. I think people would be appalled” to see land they believed had been protected as open space taken for development. I hope this bill passes.”

In a phone interview Wednesday, Kampf said the bill is a direct reaction to the Lower Merion School District’s consideration of taking a portion of the Stoneleigh garden.

“I read and heard about what was going on in Lower Merion, and so did a number of my colleagues, and we talked about what changes could be made statewide to help in this situation and also if it were to arise in any other situation down the road,” he said.

The lawmakers hope to advance the bill quickly through the legislative process.