California Project News: More Property Being Targeted for Condemnation for High Speed Rail Project
Earlier this month, the State Publics Works Board approved and adopted Resolutions of Necessity (the agency’s decision to take property by eminent domain) for 12 more properties in the San Joaquin Valley required by the California High-Speed Rail Authority (“CHSRA”). Parcels impacted are in Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare counties. The parcels total 53 acres,… Read more »
California High Speed Rail Project: Relocation Considerations for Displaced Businesses, Farms and Non-Profits
The California High Speed Rail project has been slowly, but surely, picking up its pace of property acquisition in the Central Valley. So far, the State Public Works Board has adopted 192 resolutions of necessity declaring the CHSRA’s intent to file eminent domain actions in court to acquire properties. Last month alone, CHSRA approved resolutions… Read more »
California Eminent Domain Project News: CHSRA Updates State Legislature on the Bullet Train Project
This week, the California High Speed Rail Authority issued its biannual Project Update Report to the State Legislature. The report provides a synopsis of the Authority’s funding, environmental review, land acquisition (eminent domain), and construction activities for the California High Speed Rail Project. Of note, the Authority advises that the Project’s first operating segment… Read more »
California Eminent Domain Project News: California High Speed Rail Settles Lawsuit with Bakersfield
Last month, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board held that the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, is pre-empted by federal environmental law relative to the Fresno-Bakersfield route of the proposed high speed rail. STB stated in their opinion that CEQA could delay or eliminate a rail project even after a federal board, such as the… Read more »
California Eminent Domain Project News: More Condemnation Approvals: California High Speel Rail Gears Up for More Acquisitions
On Wednesday, the State Public Works Board approved approximately 160 parcels between Fresno and Kings Counties for acquisition for the high-speed rail project. The California High Speed Rail Authority (“CHSRA”) requested acquisition of the 160 parcels which, in addition to several hundred other parcels, they believe are necessary for the construction of the rail project…. Read more »
California Eminent Domain Project News: CHSRA Adds Palmdale to Burbank Track on Route
California High Speed Rail’s recent increase in activity in the Central Valley has caused some rail backers and opponents to voice their dissatisfaction with the “train to nowhere” plan. Both groups have taken the position that starting the high speed bullet train in the Central Valley has no benefit. The dissatisfaction has caused a political… Read more »
California Eminent Domain Project News: California High Speed Rail Authority’s Funding Dinged Again
A recently approved transportation bill which has blocked CHSRA’s possibility of getting additional federal funding for the up-coming fiscal year is not the only money crisis facing the rail project. The planned funding by the State for the high-speed rail has been tentatively approved for $250 million beginning in fiscal 2015. This massive sum, however,… Read more »
REGION: Bullet train’s proposed path rips through Rainbow man’s property; North County Times, 10/10/09
By Chris Nichols Curt Nicolaisen fell in love with Rainbow’s rural charm 24 years ago. The town’s warmhearted residents and natural beauty convinced him to leave suburban Orange County and build a home on Rice Canyon Road. But never once did Nicolaisen, a soft-spoken product quality engineer, expect a multibillion-dollar bullet train line could one… Read more »