Over 100 property owners along EcustaTrail suing government for compensation; How it works

Ymblanter | Main house (at the background) and headquarters (foreground), Somerset Place, North Carolina | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somerset_Place_main_house.jpg |  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons

In North Carolina over 100 homeowners are suing the federal government for invoking its power of eminent domain by taking property that was used as a rail road and converting it to a public walkway called the Ecusta Trail.

The plan for the Ecusta Trail is a 19.1-mile pedestrian walkway along an abandoned train rail. Landowners that have railroad easements on their property are eligible to make a claim.

Some of the concerns from landowners are loss of privacy, trespassing, inability to cross over the rail-trail conversion, loss of access to the river and a negative impact to farming operations.

If the landowners win the case, compensation will vary and will include severance damages and the value of the land taken.

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE PASSES BILL TO RETURN OCEANFRONT MANHATTAN BEACH PROPERTY TO BRUCE FAMILY

Pedro Szekely from Los Angeles, USA | Manhattan Beach, California | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manhattan_Beach,_California_%2827110078348%29.jpg | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons

On April 27, 2021 a subcommittee of the California state Senate passed a bill to return oceanfront property that was seized by the Manhattan Beach Board of Trustees using eminent domain in 1924. The owners of the property, Willa and Charles Bruce, sued the city for $120,000 but the couple was only granted $14,500 in 1929.

Bernard Bruce, grandson to the Bruces fought to reclaim the land before dying in 2021. The Bruces’ land is estimated to be worth between $20 million and $75 million. The bill to return the land is expected to become law. The return of this land will end a 96-year fight for the Bruce family.