Eminent Domain Watch: Developer Defrauds 200 Homeowners

From Diane at Respublica:

Eminent Domain: Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, has become the poster child of how badly eminent domain becomes when things aren't checked out thoroughly by city officials. The city allowed over 200 private homes to be taken by a developer who planned a new shopping center.

Update: Via the Castle Coalition comes news that a second bank, with branches in St. Louis, has announced “it will not lend money for projects in which local governments use eminent domain to take private property for use by private developers.”

Doubtless it has something to do with the situation in Sunset Hills.

We would like to see other banks come forward to denounce eminent domain abuse as well, like Bank of America, Chase, Wachovia, Citibank, US Bank, and regional banks like LaSalle here in Chicago and local community banks.

If the private sector doesn't respect private property, who will?!