S.B. 271

1

EMINENT DOMAIN REVISIONS
2 2011 GENERAL SESSION
3 STATE OF UTAH
4 Chief Sponsor: J. Stuart Adams
5 House Sponsor: Michael T. Morley
6
7 LONG TITLE
8 General Description:
9 This bill amends provisions relating to the right to exercise eminent domain.
10 Highlighted Provisions:
11 This bill:
12 . amends provisions authorizing an entity to exercise eminent domain for:
13 . a byroad leading from a highway to a residence, a development, or a farm; and
14 . sewage service for a development; and
15 . makes technical corrections.
16 Money Appropriated in this Bill:
17 None
18 Other Special Clauses:
19 None
20 Utah Code Sections Affected:
21 AMENDS:
22 78B-6-501, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2010, Chapter 401
23
24 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
25 Section 1. Section 78B-6-501 is amended to read:
26 78B-6-501. Eminent domain -- Uses for which right may be exercised.
27 Subject to the provisions of this part, the right of eminent domain may be exercised on

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

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

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




Legislative Review Note
as of 2-8-11 9:00 AM

Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel