Eminent Domain Changes Daytona Boardwalk

August 12, 2006 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Steven Geoffrey Gieseler

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the closing of the historic Daytona Beach boardwalk.  The city condemned most of the existing businesses so the property could be turned over to a condominium developer.

PLF attorneys filed a brief in support of business owners challenging the takings, though the case was settled before being decided by an appeals court.  The city's defense of its actions included a theory–offered with a straight face–that Florida property owners had no real right to their land because the Indian tribes that inhabited pre-colonial Florida didn't recognize private property (a myth, by the way, ruined by Tim Sandefur in his excellent book).