H.B. 323 Enrolled

1

EMINENT DOMAIN AMENDMENTS
2 2008 GENERAL SESSION
3 STATE OF UTAH
4 Chief Sponsor: Aaron Tilton
5 Senate Sponsor: Darin G. Peterson
6
7 LONG TITLE
8 General Description:
9 This bill modifies provisions relating to eminent domain.
10 Highlighted Provisions:
11 This bill:
12 . clarifies an exclusion from a public use relating to trails, paths, or other ways for
13 walking, hiking, bicycling, equestrian use, or other recreational uses for which
14 eminent domain may not be used; and
15 . excludes certain parks from the scope of what is a public use for purposes of
16 eminent domain.
17 Monies Appropriated in this Bill:
18 None
19 Other Special Clauses:
20 None
21 Utah Code Sections Affected:
22 AMENDS:
23 78B-6-501, as renumbered and amended by Laws of Utah 2008, Chapter 3
24
25 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
26 Section 1. Section 78B-6-501 is amended to read:
27 78B-6-501. Eminent domain -- Uses for which right may be exercised.
28 Subject to the provisions of this part, the right of eminent domain may be exercised on
29 behalf of the following public uses:

30 (1) all public uses authorized by the Government of the United States[.];
31 (2) public buildings and grounds for the use of the state, and all other public uses
32 authorized by the Legislature[.];
33 (3) (a) public buildings and grounds for the use of any county, city [or incorporated],
34 town, or board of education;
35 (b) reservoirs, canals, aqueducts, flumes, ditches, or pipes for conducting water for the
36 use of the inhabitants of any county [or], city, or [incorporated] town, or for the draining of any
37 county, city, or [incorporated] town;
38 (c) the raising of the banks of streams, removing obstructions from streams, and
39 widening, deepening, or straightening their channels;
40 (d) bicycle paths and sidewalks adjacent to paved roads;
41 (e) roads, streets, and alleys for public vehicular use, excluding trails, paths, or other
42 ways for walking, hiking, bicycling, equestrian use, or other recreational uses, or whose primary
43 purpose is as a foot path, equestrian trail, bicycle path, or walkway; and
44 (f) all other public uses for the benefit of any county, city, or [incorporated] town, or its
45 inhabitants[.];
46 (4) wharves, docks, piers, chutes, booms, ferries, bridges, toll roads, byroads, plank and
47 turnpike roads, roads for transportation by traction engines or road locomotives, roads for
48 logging or lumbering purposes, and railroads and street railways for public transportation[.];
49 (5) reservoirs, dams, watergates, canals, ditches, flumes, tunnels, aqueducts and pipes
50 for the supplying of persons, mines, mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores,
51 with water for domestic or other uses, or for irrigation purposes, or for the draining and
52 reclaiming of lands, or for the floating of logs and lumber on streams not navigable, or for solar
53 evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals in solution[.];
54 (6) (a) roads, railroads, tramways, tunnels, ditches, flumes, pipes, and dumping places
55 to facilitate the milling, smelting, or other reduction of ores, or the working of mines, quarries,
56 coal mines, or mineral deposits including minerals in solution;
57 (b) outlets, natural or otherwise, for the deposit or conduct of tailings, refuse or water

58 from mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores, or from mines, quarries, coal
59 mines or mineral deposits including minerals in solution;
60 (c) mill dams;
61 (d) gas, oil or coal pipelines, tanks or reservoirs, including any subsurface stratum or
62 formation in any land for the underground storage of natural gas, and in connection with that,
63 any other interests in property which may be required to adequately examine, prepare, maintain,
64 and operate underground natural gas storage facilities;
65 (e) solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals in solution;
66 and
67 (f) any occupancy in common by the owners or possessors of different mines, quarries,
68 coal mines, mineral deposits, mills, smelters, or other places for the reduction of ores, or any
69 place for the flow, deposit or conduct of tailings or refuse matter[.];
70 (7) byroads leading from highways to residences and farms[.];
71 (8) telegraph, telephone, electric light and electric power lines, and sites for electric
72 light and power plants[.];
73 (9) sewerage of any city or town, or of any settlement of not less than ten families, or of
74 any public building belonging to the state, or of any college or university[.];
75 (10) canals, reservoirs, dams, ditches, flumes, aqueducts, and pipes for supplying and
76 storing water for the operation of machinery for the purpose of generating and transmitting
77 electricity for power, light or heat[.];
78 (11) cemeteries and public parks[.], except for a park whose primary use is:
79 (a) as a trail, path, or other way for walking, hiking, bicycling, or equestrian use; or
80 (b) to connect other trails, paths, or other ways for walking, hiking, bicycling, or
81 equestrian use;
82 (12) pipe lines for the purpose of conducting any and all liquids connected with the
83 manufacture of beet sugar[.]; and
84 (13) sites for mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores and necessary to
85 their successful operation, including the right to take lands for the discharge and natural

86 distribution of smoke, fumes, and dust, produced by the operation of works, provided that the
87 powers granted by this subsection may not be exercised in any county where the population
88 exceeds 20,000, or within one mile of the limits of any city or incorporated town nor unless the
89 proposed condemner has the right to operate by purchase, option to purchase or easement, at
90 least 75% in value of land acreage owned by persons or corporations situated within a radius of
91 four miles from the mill, smelter or other works for the reduction of ores; nor beyond the limits
92 of the four-mile radius; nor as to lands covered by contracts, easements, or agreements existing
93 between the condemner and the owner of land within the limit and providing for the operation
94 of such mill, smelter, or other works for the reduction of ores; nor until an action shall have
95 been commenced to restrain the operation of such mill, smelter, or other works for the
96 reduction of ores.