US Rail, a short-line railroad operator chartered in Michigan, with offices in Sylvania, OH, is proposing to construct an intermodal rail yard in Erie Township, MI. This intermodal rail yard would be used as a hub where freight containers from Asia would be transferred between trucks and trains, with a direct railroad line access extending to the pacific coast across Canada. Plans for the rail yard proposal require Erie residents to sell their land or they will be forced through eminent domain.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Monroe City Council, although acknowledging the importance of commercial and industrial development for the purposes of maintaining a healthy local economy and creating sorely needed industrial jobs to replace jobs being lost by the automotive industry, also strongly opposes the taking of property from residents through the laws of eminent domain ...

A hotly contested rail terminal that had been proposed for southeastern Monroe County’s Erie Township — between Luna Pier and Erie roads — will not be built there, developers announced yesterday. But Global Partners Ltd. is looking for other sites in Monroe County for a $90 million rail yard that could transfer up to 1 million shipping containers a year from trains to tractor trailers.

Such a rail yard is predicted to fill a $400 million industrial park to be built nearby, said Howard Moss, executive vice president of Great Lakes Development, which is part of Global Partners. Together, the rail yard and industrial park are expected to create 5,000 jobs — most paying $10 to $20 an hour — within 10 years of construction, Mr. Moss said.

Mr. Moss said it was impossible to put a time line on the project until Global Partners has an agreement for land. He declined to say if the group has offers on land. But he reiterated that it will not use eminent domain, as an opposition group has said it fears. Mr. Moss said the rail yard would use new technology that would make it one of the five most efficient such yards in the country. The closest large rail yard to Toledo is in Chicago.

... involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another to further economic development. The case arose from the condemnation by New London, Connecticut, of privately owned real property so that it could be used as part of a comprehensive redevelopment plan. The Court held in a 5-4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

The decision was widely criticized by American politicians and the general public. Many members of the general public viewed the outcome as a gross violation of property rights and as a misinterpretation of the Fifth Amendment, the consequence of which would be to benefit large corporations at the expense of individual homeowners and local communities.

Ohio

An attempted use of eminent domain was brought before the Ohio supreme court in Norwood, Ohio v. Horney. The Supreme Court of Ohio held in favor of the property owners.

Michigan

Michigan passed a restriction on the use of eminent domain in November 2006, Proposition 4, 80% to 20%. The text of the ballot initiative was as follows

A PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO PROHIBIT GOVERNMENT FROM TAKING PRIVATE PROPERTY BY EMINENT DOMAIN FOR CERTAIN PRIVATE PURPOSES The proposed constitutional amendment would:

• Prohibit government from taking private property for transfer to another private individual or business for purposes of economic development or increasing tax revenue.
• Provide that if an individual’s principal residence is taken by government for public use, the individual must be paid at least 125% of property’s fair market value.
• Require government that takes a private property to demonstrate that the taking is for a public use; if taken to eliminate blight, require a higher standard of proof to demonstrate that the taking of that property is for a public use.
• Preserve existing rights of property owners.

Global Partners Ltd. is looking for other sites in Monroe County for a $90 million rail yard that could transfer up to 1 million shipping containers a year from trains to tractor trailers. Howard Moss [is] executive vice president of Great Lakes Development, which is part of Global Partners.

His partner David Hall, who is president of Great Lakes, said Monroe County is preferable for the project because it would provide access to a single-line railroad service from the Pacific Ocean via the Canadian National railroad. Canadian National serves several ports in British Columbia and has a rail line into Toledo from the north that ends near a freight yard that parallels I-75, south of Alexis Road.

But Mr. Hall and others had said earlier this year that insufficient land was available near the Canadian National tracks on the Toledo side of the Ohio-Michigan border to build the container-transfer facility there. Locating on any other rail line in metro Toledo would require cargoes to be exchanged from one railroad to another somewhere in their journey from any Pacific port.

The rail networks of Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation, the other two major railroads serving the city, go only as far west as Kansas City and St. Louis, respectively, and both perform most of their western exchanges in Chicago.

Toledo has had intermodal aspirations for quite some time, the topic is broached along with other items of interest related to economic development this morning on WSPD with Fred’s interview with Brian McMahon. Plans for a 400 acre intermodal facility is in the works at Toledo Express, that would be adjacent to the turnpike and to rail. As Brian pointed out this has been something that has been discussed for 15 years.

Is part of the problem how people are treated by the City? If you listen to a podcast of a phone conversation on WSPD with Fred and Brian McMahon on Friday, Brian McMahon relates an experience where he was invited by the Port Authority to attend a meeting but was told by Mr. Reinbolt that he was not welcome, leaving him with the impression that personal vendettas are getting in the way of economic development.

As discussed earlier, Toledo has had intermodal aspirations for well over a decade. The problem continues to be that we don’t seem to put any of the dreams into plans and other parts of Northwestern Ohio are. When a potential like this exists: