Home Family Law The family farm in Georgia is defending itself against land confiscation and...

The family farm in Georgia is defending itself against land confiscation and accusing it of serious domain misuse

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The family farm in Georgia is defending itself against land confiscation and accusing it of serious domain misuse

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – For Blaine and Diane Smith, driving around their nearly 600 acres in Hancock County, Georgia, never gets old.

Their history is as rich as the timber crop they grew. Blaine Smith's enslaved ancestors lived and worked on the land in Sparta, Georgia.

Now Blaine and Diane Smith own the property; They are among the less than 2 percent of Black farmers nationwide.

“My father farmed this land; “My grandfather farmed there most of his life,” Blaine Smith said. “He bought it in the 1920s. During this time he grew cotton, corn, peas and all kinds of vegetables.

“It’s still owned by the Smith family. “Not a piece of it had escaped us” until state leaders allowed a private company to seize some of their land under retention of title last September.

Following a unanimous decision by the five-member Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), the Sandersville Railroad Company was legally permitted to condemn nine properties in Sparta, including portions of the Smiths' property.

“It’s my property,” Blaine Smith said. “You don’t have the right to take.”

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, eminent domain is the right of a government or its agent to appropriate private property for public use upon payment of compensation. In Georgia, the trial begins with condemnation of the website.

The Sandersville Railroad Company wanted the demolished sites to become part of its Hanson Spur project, described on its website as “a 4.5-mile track connecting commodity producers to the CSX Transportation (CSXT) rail line that runs along Georgia Highway 16 runs through Hancock County.

The family farm in Georgia is defending itself against land confiscation and accusing it of serious domain misuse

“The Hanson Spur will serve as an important link to the North American transportation network for Hancock County and help bring Middle Georgia’s natural resources and agricultural products to new markets,” it said.

The railway said the line would be used to transport stone used in concrete construction and that the train project would improve infrastructure. But the Smiths feel pressured.

“If you listen to the railroad people, they say, 'You keep your land, we'll just take a little piece of it,'” Blaine Smith said. “But they devalue it; they deface it; This creates danger.”

The family is just one of at least a dozen local eminent domain cases tracked by Atlanta News First Investigates in recent years.

Currently statistics are few and fragmented, but some nationwide data is available. A 2007 study by the Institute for Justice found that the use of eminent domain for private development most often affected areas where more than half the community was people of color. As well as in areas where almost half of the municipality's population lived below the poverty line.

In the city of Sparta, where the railroad is being built, 51 percent of residents live in poverty, according to census records. The average income is $22,000.

“We are a county that needs new opportunities and new job growth [and a] new tax base,” said Ben Tarbutton, president of the Sandersville Railroad Company, who added that the Hanson Spur project “will have an annual impact of $1.5 million.” He also emphasizes the impact on economic development, “because that is what people care about.”

“We’re trying to make a difference for the citizens that are here.”

Tarbutton said the train would only operate one return trip per day, five days a week during daylight hours, and would not pose a nuisance to landowners. He also said he understands the families' concerns about their inheritance, but “the condemnation process is the last resort. “We have had several discussions with the landowners,” he said, adding that he is continuing negotiations with those who have concerns want to keep it open.

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While several other property owners have made deals with the company, three families, including the Smiths, are holding back because they fear the company could take even more land in the future if they give up land now.

Tarbutton denied that the company would pursue eminent domain in the future. “No,” he said. “We are very clear.”

But the Smiths don't believe that claim, which is one reason the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm based in Arlington, Virginia, is now representing the families against the railroad.

“The railroad's position is simply: 'I am the railroad and of course I will benefit you,' and that is simply not enough,” said attorney Betsy Sanz.

The group is appealing the eminent domain decision in Fulton County Superior Court, where the PSC is headquartered. The institute argues that the PSC wrongly granted approval to the Sandersville Railroad Company after the company failed to demonstrate that the project was feasible and that it would actually be of public benefit.

“What the railroad has shown is that this route — if it comes to fruition at all — will drive profits and cost reductions for some private companies, and that's all,” Sanz said.

“The Institute for Justice is using this to make money,” Tarbutton said.

The Institute for Justice expects the case could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not addressed the issue of eminent domain since its controversial 5-4 decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In 2005, the court ruled in favor of New London, Connecticut, upholding the city's right to seize private land for economic development.

The Kelo decision led many states, including Georgia, to establish new local protections where economic development cannot be the reason for the seizure of private property.

“I go back to what my dad said,” Blaine Smith said. “'Keep the land.' The country gives you respect. Everyone here knows this is Smith country.”

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