Eminent domain is not a happy phrase. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, eminent domain is “a right of a government to take private property for public use by virtue of the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction.” In other words, your land is not your land if the government says so.
The founding fathers of our country recognized the potential abuse of power that came with eminent domain, and sought to curb that abuse by specifically stating in the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights that, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
As it turns out, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, the first landowner’s challenge to the federal government’s eminent domain power involved a post office. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Kohl v. United States in 1876 after the feds condemned land in Cincinnati, Ohio for use as a post office building and custom house. The court decided for the federal government, and eminent domain has more or less been chugging along ever since.
Unfortunately, our wonderful Happy Valley is no stranger to the unhappy use of eminent domain, as it has cropped up twice in recent months.
Last August, the State College Borough Council, after massive public outcry, had to reverse a decision to acquire by eminent domain the building downtown that houses The Brewery and other businesses. The reason the borough wanted the property was to build a parking garage – the same reason they they used eminent domain in 2004 to build the Beaver Avenue garage.
In addition, the ongoing State College Area Connector project – which will create a four-lane highway to connect the “missing link” of U.S. 322 between Boalsburg and Potter’s Mills – has three proposed routes. All would require that PennDOT use eminent domain to take property to build the road.
This concept of eminent domain is bad enough on its face to the average person — that the government can take what is rightfully yours — but it is even more insidious when you look a little closer.
The Fifth Amendment requires “just compensation” for any property taken by eminent domain. But once a property has been targeted for eminent domain, getting “just compensation” is all but impossible until the government builds what it wants to build somewhere else.
In the case of the homes, farms and property in the valley, their hands are now proverbially tied, as they would have been for The Brewery building’s owners had the eminent domain threat there persisted. Even if they wanted to sell their properties, no one will buy them while the specter of “eminent domain” hangs over them. The threat of eminent domain makes a normal negotiation with anyone impossible.
Then, as far as negotiating with the government is concerned, it’s a completely one-sided negotiation. The government will get what it wants no matter what. If the owners don’t like the amount of money they’re given, the government will use force and its overwhelming legal might to take it.
Which is why, if we REALLY want to help businesses like the Brewery and the folks in the valley along U.S. 322, we’ve got to get the government to build what it wants somewhere else, so that specter of eminent domain no longer casts a shadow over their properties and livelihoods.
For the downtown issue, avoiding another Brewery building situation should be easy. All the borough wants to do is to build a parking garage. There are several locations downtown where a parking garage with the same footprint as the Fraser Street garage could be built. The Beaver Avenue surface parking lot between Fraser Street and Allen Street is one. The Penn State surface parking lot and building at the northwest corner of West Beaver Avenue and South Burrowes Street is another.
But the best location is, you guessed it, the downtown post office! It provides much more land than the footprint for the Fraser Street garage. Meaning even more parking spaces without building taller.
Here are a few reasons why the downtown State College Post Office should move and make room for a new garage:
- It’s old. And its physical condition and appearance have certainly seen better days. It has the “Hammond Building” era look to it – and Penn State will thankfully soon rid us of that blight.
- It’s downtown. This may have been a benefit when it was built and most of the population was within walking distance, but with the population growth and sprawl of Happy Valley, a main post office with only 12 parking spaces in the parking lot, and maybe room for eight more vehicles on the street, is not the size or quality Centre Region residents need.
- It’s downtown. It’s wildly inconvenient to drive there for most residents. With Fraser Street being one-way, you are almost forced to travel on residential side streets to reach it, or navigate the wonder of Highland Alley. The post office has even removed the drive-up drop-off on the Fraser Street mailbox, forcing you to park and go in if you want to mail anything.
- It’s downtown. Something as simple as needing to pick up some Priority Mail supplies requires paying customers to wait in line at the counter. Why? Because, I’m told, if the boxes are left out they are taken en masse – the belief is by people to use for things other than mailing. For example, as fire starter or as bedding for people without a place to sleep. A non-downtown location could change that.
I could go on and on, as I’m sure many of you reading this could, but a new modern post office on a main street in one of the townships, with plenty of parking for both customers AND employees, plenty of counters to serve customers, plenty of room inside to stock all necessary supplies, plenty of post office boxes, plenty of mail-handling space, plenty of loading docks and easier and safer access for mail trucks would be a joy for everyone concerned — the residents of Happy Valley, and I imagine, all the postal employees as well.
Plus, if the USPS determines that they still need a small branch downtown, I’m sure the new parking garage could be built with space on the ground floor to house just such a branch. Or maybe the USPS could utilize some of the thousands upon thousands of square feet of vacant retail space downtown?
Lastly, with the president, both U.S. senators from Pennsylvania and the entire Borough Council and mayor being Democrats, if there was ever a political alignment that would bode well for relocating the main State College post office, now would be it. I’m sure all parties concerned could negotiate a deal that will make everyone happy.
As for the residents in the valley along U.S. 322, removing that specter of eminent domain is tougher. But not impossible.
Almost nine years ago I wrote a column on this website suggesting that the way to actually get this missing link of U.S. 322 completed was to build a tunnel. A seven-mile-long tunnel that would enter the mountains at Galbraith Gap near the Tussey Mountain ski area at an elevation of 1,360 feet, travel in a straight line, and exit at the intersection of Route 322 and Stone Creek Road above the Laurel Creek Reservoir at an elevation of 1,250 feet.
Now, the issue with building a tunnel is two-fold: the cost is greater than that of a surface road, and certain chemicals, gasses and hazardous materials are restricted from going through it.
So here’s the answer: skip the tunnel and just build a surface road highway over the mountains. It’s taken over 50 years to get the 1.8 mile stretch around Potters Mills constructed and I don’t think this State College Area Connector project is going to move more quickly or be any more successful than the ones that preceded it during the last half-century. And shouldn’t be, when the state already owns thousands of acres of mountain land that it can build the highway through without needing to use any eminent domain proceedings.
Meaning, the question is, do they really want to get this stretch of U.S. 322 built? If so, the use of eminent domain is not the way to go. A surface road over the mountains is. And the houses, farms, barns, lives and livelihoods of the residents of the valley can return to normal.
But, as long as we’ve solved Happy Valley’s two major eminent domain problems, we don’t want to leave the local government officials empty-handed in their desires to use their great governmental powers over the citizenry (PennDOT has plenty of other eminent domain options all over the state).
Here’s a suggestion for State College Borough Council: If you really want to feel the power of eminent domain and show us how democracy works, how about initiating eminent domain proceedings on the Westerly Parkway Plaza property, for the purpose of additional land and growth for the high school?
Now that the Rite Aid is closed, what has been an underused and under-maintained eyesore for decades is even more of one. As I’ve previously suggested, take the portion where Weis Markets now sits, eliminate O’Bryan Lane to adjoin the property to the high school campus and Weis and the other businesses there could move to the far side of the plaza.
In that scenario, I can’t imagine many residents that will show up at a Borough Council meeting to protest your use of eminent domain on that shopping plaza.
