| Ruling could be model for new
eminent domain law
January 27, 2003 Marietta Daily Journal, Inc. 580 Fairground St. Marietta, GA 30060 770-428-9411 To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@mdjonline.com Down in the south Georgia county of Berrien, the Georgia Transmission Corporation tried to exercise its eminent domain powers to condemn private property for a high-voltage line but ran head-on into a judicial buzz saw. Special master Charles J. Steedley in a ruling last Thursday denied GTC's condemnation request. "Georgia Transmission has not, under the evidence, determined a public necessity, and there is no public necessity for the condemnation," Steedley ruled. GTC had brought the condemnation proceeding against three parcels with three different owners "allegedly for the purpose of constructing a 115-kv electric transmission line to a rural, swampy and desolate area of Berrien County ... called 'Weber,'" the special master said. "The few people that live there purchase electricity either from Colquitt REA or Georgia Power," Steedley said. No evidence was presented by GTC concerning the number of customers served in the Weber community, he said. Nor does Weber have any factories or schools. In short, Steedley found no credible evidence of a need for the proposed transmission line. Instead, defendants presented evidence that demand for electricity would be cut by reductions in tobacco allotments. The special master rejected as not credible an engineer's computer simulation of what would happen if a substation in Nashville, the Berrien County seat, went out. Steedley termed the testimony "mere speculation." Steedley also ruled the proposed GTC line would violate the Nashville zoning ordinance. Most surprising was the special master's finding that "there is a higher incidence of childhood leukemia in relation to proximity of children to high-power transmission lines." The proposed line would be about 30 feet from Berrien County Middle School. Steedley also noted that GTC had not applied for a construction permit from the county as required. He also held that GTC sought the right to cut trees "on an unspecified area of land adjacent to" the land targeted for condemnation. GTC did not present credible evidence showing a public necessity to construct the proposed transmission line and to condemn the parcels of land, Steedley ruled. An electric membership corporation "has no absolute right of taking based upon its own determination of necessity," Steedley held, citing three cases from Georgia appeals, two in 1997 and the other in 1990. Going even further, the special master declared: "No private corporation has a right under the Georgia Constitution to condemn public property," citing a 1985 case involving the state DOT and the city of Atlanta. Delegation of eminent domain authority "must be strictly construed," Steedley said. It is an unusual and highly interesting case. Normally, a special master only decides the value or property -- the price to be paid. And the Berrien ruling apparently flies in the face of the latest Georgia Supreme Court decision voiding a Rabun County moratorium on high-voltage lines. The Berrien case raises the right questions and comes down firmly on the side of private property ownership. It could be a model for a new law to regulate eminent domain in Georgia. http://apt.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=7&show=localnews&NewsID=28672
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