This page uses extracted PDF text. Text can misread numbers, dates or table columns. Check the PDF before quoting or interpreting it. Redacted areas remain redacted.
3. Following these adjustments, Virginia law only permits the exercise of eminent domain
for defined public uses.
If a government takes property without condemnation proceedings or just
compensation, a property owner can bring an “inverse condemnation” action for just
compensation. See United States v. Clarke, 445 U.S. 253, 257 (1980). Virginia law permits
inverse condemnation actions under the state constitution and a separate statutory
provision. Va. Const. art. I, § 11; Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-187; see Kitchen v. City of Newport
News, 657 S.E.2d 132, 141–42 (Va. 2008). To succeed, a claimant must establish that (1)
he owns private property; (2) a condemning authority has taken or damaged the property;
(3) “the taking or damaging was for ‘public use’”; and (4) “[t]he . . . condemning authority
failed to pay just compensation.” Close v. City of Norfolk, 82 Va. Cir. 636, at *4 (Va. Cir.
Ct. 2009); see also Kitchen, 657 S.E.2d at 136–38. Just as in a regular condemnation action,
an inverse condemnation action “permits recovery only when property is taken or damaged
for public use.” AGCS, 800 S.E.2d at 163 (internal quotation omitted).
A state may also restrain property rights under its police power. “[P]roperty in this
country is held under the implied obligation that the owner’s use of it shall not be injurious
to the community, and the Takings Clause did not transform that principle to one that
requires compensation whenever the State asserts its power to enforce it.” Keystone
Bituminous Coal Ass’n v. DeBenedictis, 480 U.S. 470, 491–92 (1987) (cleaned up).
Virginia law has long recognized police power authority to abate a public nuisance without
compensation. See, e.g., Jeremy Imp. Co. v. Commonwealth, 56 S.E. 224, 226 (Va. 1907)
(“The abatement of such a nuisance for the public safety comes under the police power of
12Jump to an indexed page (18 of 18)