1     
EMINENT DOMAIN AMENDMENTS

2     
2019 GENERAL SESSION

3     
STATE OF UTAH

4     
Chief Sponsor: Paul Ray

5     
Senate Sponsor: ____________

6     

7     LONG TITLE
8     General Description:
9          This bill amends the uses for which a person may exercise the use of eminent domain.
10     Highlighted Provisions:
11          This bill:
12          ▸     prohibits the use of eminent domain for economic development and parks; and
13          ▸     makes technical and conforming changes.
14     Money Appropriated in this Bill:
15          None
16     Other Special Clauses:
17          None
18     Utah Code Sections Affected:
19     AMENDS:
20          78B-6-501, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2014, Chapter 59
21     

22     Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
23          Section 1. Section 78B-6-501 is amended to read:
24          78B-6-501. Eminent domain -- Uses for which right may be exercised.
25          (1) Subject to the provisions of this part, the right of eminent domain may be exercised
26     on behalf of the following public uses:
27          [(1)] (a) all public uses authorized by the federal government;
28          [(2)] (b) public buildings and grounds for the use of the state, and all other public uses
29     authorized by the Legislature;
30          [(3) (a)] (c) (i) public buildings and grounds for the use of any county, city, town, or
31     board of education;
32          [(b)] (ii) reservoirs, canals, aqueducts, flumes, ditches, or pipes for conducting water or
33     sewage, including to or from a development, for the use of the inhabitants of any county, city,
34     or town, or for the draining of any county, city, or town;
35          [(c)] (iii) the raising of the banks of streams, removing obstructions from streams, and
36     widening, deepening, or straightening their channels;
37          [(d)] (iv) bicycle paths and sidewalks adjacent to paved roads;
38          [(e)] (v) roads, byroads, streets, and alleys for public vehicular use, including for access
39     to a development, excluding trails, paths, or other ways for walking, hiking, bicycling,
40     equestrian use, or other recreational uses, or whose primary purpose is as a foot path,
41     equestrian trail, bicycle path, or walkway; and
42          [(f)] (vi) all other public uses for the benefit of any county, city, or town, or its
43     inhabitants;
44          [(4)] (d) wharves, docks, piers, chutes, booms, ferries, bridges, toll roads, byroads,
45     plank and turnpike roads, roads for transportation by traction engines or road locomotives,
46     roads for logging or lumbering purposes, and railroads and street railways for public
47     transportation;
48          [(5)] (e) reservoirs, dams, watergates, canals, ditches, flumes, tunnels, aqueducts and
49     pipes for the supplying of persons, mines, mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of
50     ores, with water for domestic or other uses, or for irrigation purposes, or for the draining and
51     reclaiming of lands, or for solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of
52     minerals in solution;
53          [(6) (a)] (f) (i) roads, railroads, tramways, tunnels, ditches, flumes, pipes, and dumping
54     places to access or facilitate the milling, smelting, or other reduction of ores, or the working of
55     mines, quarries, coal mines, or mineral deposits including oil, gas, and minerals in solution;
56          [(b)] (ii) outlets, natural or otherwise, for the deposit or conduct of tailings, refuse or
57     water from mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores, or from mines, quarries,
58     coal mines or mineral deposits including minerals in solution;
59          [(c)] (iii) mill dams;
60          [(d)] (iv) gas, oil or coal pipelines, tanks or reservoirs, including any subsurface
61     stratum or formation in any land for the underground storage of natural gas, and in connection
62     with that, any other interests in property which may be required to adequately examine,
63     prepare, maintain, and operate underground natural gas storage facilities;
64          [(e)] (v) solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals in
65     solution; and
66          [(f)] (vi) any occupancy in common by the owners or possessors of different mines,
67     quarries, coal mines, mineral deposits, mills, smelters, or other places for the reduction of ores,
68     or any place for the flow, deposit or conduct of tailings or refuse matter;
69          [(7)] (g) byroads leading from a highway to:
70          [(a)] (i) a residence; or
71          [(b)] (ii) a farm;
72          [(8)] (h) telecommunications, electric light and electric power lines, sites for electric
73     light and power plants, or sites for the transmission of broadcast signals from a station licensed
74     by the Federal Communications Commission in accordance with 47 C.F.R. Part 73 and that
75     provides emergency broadcast services;
76          [(9)] (i) sewage service for:
77          [(a)] (i) a city, a town, or any settlement of not fewer than 10 families;
78          [(b)] (ii) a public building belonging to the state; or
79          [(c)] (iii) a college or university;
80          [(10)] (j) canals, reservoirs, dams, ditches, flumes, aqueducts, and pipes for supplying
81     and storing water for the operation of machinery for the purpose of generating and transmitting
82     electricity for power, light or heat;
83          [(11) cemeteries and public parks, except for a park whose primary use is:]
84          [(a) as a trail, path, or other way for walking, hiking, bicycling, or equestrian use; or]
85          [(b) to connect other trails, paths, or other ways for walking, hiking, bicycling, or
86     equestrian use;]
87          (k) cemeteries; and
88          [(12)] (l) sites for mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores and necessary
89     to 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 section may not be exercised in any county where the population
92     exceeds 20,000, or within one mile of the limits of any city or incorporated town nor unless the
93     proposed condemner has the right to operate by purchase, option to purchase or easement, at
94     least 75% in value of land acreage owned by persons or corporations situated within a radius of
95     four miles from the mill, smelter or other works for the reduction of ores; nor beyond the limits
96     of the four-mile radius; nor as to lands covered by contracts, easements, or agreements existing
97     between the condemner and the owner of land within the limit and providing for the operation
98     of such mill, smelter, or other works for the reduction of ores; nor until an action shall have
99     been commenced to restrain the operation of such mill, smelter, or other works for the
100     reduction of ores.
101          (2) A person may not exercise the right of eminent domain on behalf of the following
102     uses:
103          (a) economic development; or
104          (b) parks.