Government Accountability Office GAO 07-28 Eminent domain report now on line

On July 11th we met with three representatives of the United States Government Accountability Office and U.S. General Accounting Office in the city of Los Angeles to critique the use of eminent domain by Community Redevelopment Agencies in the Los Angeles region. In performing their nationwide discovery they met with ten organizations who were asked to provide data on a selected list of topic areas. In addition to visiting LA their team also traveled to Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL, Denver, CO and New York, New York to meet with other regional and national organizations to collectively quiz us on redevelopment activity which can now be found on their just released 58 page report GAO-07-28. You can download the report from their web site or purchase copies as stated therein.
www.gao.gov

One of the areas that we covered, that is mentioned in their analysis, dealt with relocation expenses. Representatives of four of the five visited cities all felt that “the payment amounts allowable under the URA might not be adequate to cover costs.”

Folks. We are speaking of a business relocation with a cap of $20,000. Ref. Pgs 16 and 27.

Having just begun to read the report I am not prepared to comment as to what areas I feel were not covered or if our position varies from, or is in agreement with, the rest of the nation or the analysts’ position.
Larry Gilbert, Orange County Co-director, Californians United for Redevelopment Education CURE


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