No Notice Needed to Seize Land

I wasn’t originally going to post anything about this story.  After a few days of thinking about it, and after realizing that very few people I know actually heard about the story, I decided to put something up.

A South Tacoma couple’s house was chosen for condemnation following a public meeting of Sound Transit’s Board of Directors.  This case hinges around the notion of ‘reasonable notice.’  The public meeting was announced on the Sound Transit website and stated that there would be discussion about property decisions in Lakewood and South Tacoma, but it didn’t state which properties were in their sights.  No notice was put in the newspaper.  No notice was provided to the homeowners.  Last week the Washington State Supreme Court decided that the website notice was enough and that individual property owners don’t need to be informed when their property is being considered for seizure. 

This sets a pretty poor precedent.  When I moved into my house a few years ago my street was mostly retirees.  Now as I look up and down my block I would guess that 50% of the houses have internet access.  The old public notice notion of a billboard in a public place or newspaper postings is passive.  People get the newspaper.  People walk by billboards (if your town is one block long).  They read the newspaper for other reasons and may find the notice.  People don’t read the Sound Transit website for fun.  Forcing people to look up public notices on various websites is a very active endeavor for people.  My experience in the workplace has taught me that requiring people to be active particpants to receive relevant and changing information is the same as not producing the information at all.  A flyer in the mailbox would be appropriate notice to specific homeowners and wouldn’t require active participation to get it.  Public notice needs to be relevant.

My guess is that even if the property owners had been at that meeting the outcome would’ve been the same.  But at least they would’ve had the opportunity to be heard.  I’m all for expanded Sound Transit service.  Let’s feel good about the processes we use to put it in place. 

Link to last week’s story in The News Tribune

Link to Peter Callaghan’s follow up in the TNT.

Link to the Seattle Times Editorial