Dear CCRC,
As you are well aware, the recent law signed by Gov. Branstad originated in our committee. This new law significantly changes your plans as you seek to build a lake in Clarke County.
This letter is intended to do a few things. First off, we wish to correct some outright fabrications that have come from some of your meetings. The Iowa House of Representative’s has no desire to deprive you of water. This new law does not deprive you of water.
The intent of the new law is to prevent you from abusing eminent domain and forces you to respect private property rights — something you have never done from your inception.
Open records requests showed multiple alternative options that you barely even blinked at. Let’s call a spade a spade — you wish to have a large recreational lake in your county. We commend you for that - we support that. What we do not support is you using eminent domain for your private use.
Please stop saying this is only about water — literally hundreds of documents we can produce show this was your intent in the very beginning and it surely is still your hope. The recent Supreme Court ruling agreed with us and forbade you from using private entities for your group.
Secondly, the new law forces you to prove in court that the alternatives do NOT work. Rest assured we as a committee will be making sure that you are completely compliant with the law.
We wish you well in your endeavors to find willing sellers for your project but please have zero certainty that we will go away, have zero certainty that you will be able to skirt this law, and have zero certainty that you will ever be able to unjustly condemn private property.
Third, we have heard that you are actively looking for ways to skirt this law through administrative rules. We wish to remind you that Representative Pettengill, the chair of the Rules Committee in the House, is a staunch supporter of the legislation, and will do everything in her power to end any such attempt.
Finally, we would like to remind the public that there is no longer an inevitability factor when it comes to the condemnation of your land. For those of you who are hesitant to sell — you do not have to and if you wish to, make sure you get a fair price for your property.