Homeless in Arizona

Our government rulers love to tell us they are "public servants" who only help us do do things we can't do on our own. But in reality they are usually royal rulers who micromanage our lives and steal our property as this article illustrates.

In this article the city of Florence, Arizona wants to steal 1,100 acres of land from Curis Resources, a Canadian company to prevent them from mining copper on it.

If this is how public servants operate in the private sector I would love to become a public servant for some rich folks in Paradise Valley so I can steal their land, bank accounts and all their other valuables. I am just joking about that.

Source

Florence votes to take land in copper-mine dispute

By Craig Harris The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Mar 5, 2013 11:01 PM

The Florence Town Council is preparing to take more than 1,100 acres from Curis Resources, a company it is locked in a bitter dispute with over a proposed copper mine.

The council voted 7-0 Monday evening to “exercise its power of eminent domain” — the latest salvo in a battle between Florence and Curis over the controversial project.

“It was a position we needed,” Mayor Tom Rankin said Tuesday. “We will start the process of the town taking over the property of Curis.”

Curis, controlled by a Canadian company, wants to build an underground copper mine off Hunt Highway, where it would inject a sulfuric-acid solution hundreds of feet underground, leaching copper from the soil and rock below. The copper-laden solution would be sent to the surface for processing.

Town officials worry the chemical process would pollute groundwater in the Pinal County community best known for being the headquarters of state prisons. Curis maintains the project is safe and will provide much-needed jobs outside the prison industry.

The town on Tuesday issued a statement saying it was acquiring the Curis property for water rights, a future wastewater-treatment plant and other town facilities and related improvements.

“I believe that using the town’s power of eminent domain to acquire the Curis property for public purposes is in the best interests of the people of the Town of Florence,” Town Manager Charles Montoya said.

“Acquiring the water rights, which exist on the Curis property, will ensure that the town can meet the water needs of its residents for many years to come.”

Shane Ham, an attorney for Curis, questioned whether the town needed the water rights. He noted that officials last month voted to convey water rights in another part of town to the developer of a large housing project. That developer, George Johnson, opposes the copper mine.

Jess Knudson, Florence deputy town manager, said the two issues are not related. He also denied that Florence ceded water rights to Johnson.

In any event, Curis intends to defend its property rights, Ham said. He predicted the council’s decision will cost Florence residents tens of millions of dollars.

Governments can confiscate private property for public use through eminent domain, but usually, a payment must be made to the owners as compensation.

“What the Town Council did was put the taxpayers of Florence at serious risk by beginning the process of condemning nearly 1,200 acres of a copper project without understanding the implications (of what) they have done,” Ham said.

Curis expects the town will now offer to buy the property.

But Ham believes Curis will reject the offer because it most likely will be too low. Ham said Florence will likely base its financial offer on the value of residential property in the area, which is worth far less in his estimation than land that contains a potentially lucrative copper mine.

Ham said that once Curis rejects the offer, the town likely will file suit. Curis would argue in court that the “highest and best use” for the property is a copper mine.

If a judge agrees, the town would pay top dollar for the property, he said.

“They just could find out that they bought a pig in a poke,” Ham said. “They may have bought a $300million copper mine, because we will have a chance to say that’s the highest and best use.”

Knudson noted that the Curis property is zoned for residential and commercial use.

“The town will need to compensate the property owner for the land, and it will be determined at fair market value. That will be discussed as we move forward,” Knudson said.

He declined to speculate on a purchase price.

The town said in a statement that it expects the cost to depend on the market value of the 1,187 acres and the expense of hiring legal counsel, appraisers, surveyors and other professional services.

Arizona voters in 2006 approved Proposition 207 to give private-property owners more protection from eminent domain, said Christina Sandefur, who specializes in property-rights issues for the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank.

Sandefur said state law requires governments to prove there is a true health or safety reason to take private property.

But she said it is cumbersome for most private-property owners to fight a local government, and many owners simply take the money offered.

“These lawsuits take a very long time, and with an appeals process, it can take years to work its way through the courts,” she said.

Ham acknowledged that an eminent-domain lawsuit would continue to slow Curis’ project, which has been debated the past few years.

Still, the company won’t back down, he said.

“The copper is not going anywhere. This mine project can go forward in a year or two or three,” Ham said.

Ham pointed out that legal battles are nothing new.

Curis last year sued Florence in U.S. District Court after the town passed an ordinance to effectively shut down development by banning the storage or use of large quantities of sulfuric acid, a key ingredient in the copper-recovery process.

That case is ongoing.

Curis in 2009 purchased property for the project near the geographic center of Florence and secured a mineral lease on unincorporated state trust land that is contiguous to the company’s holdings.

The town cannot take the 160acres of state trust land, and Curis has said it could mine on the state land and be successful.

Yet the town ordinance regarding sulfuric acid also keeps Curis from mining on that property, Ham said.

State Land Commissioner Vanessa Hickman said that her office is not taking a position on the dispute because it does not involve state land.

Her office has supported the project, and that position has not changed — the state stands to reap hefty revenue if it goes forward.

Curis has enlisted help from influential politicians, including Gov. Jan Brewer, to move the project along.

A call to the Governor’s Office was not returned Tuesday.