Problem with the city; eminent domain

I ran into this reading through some City housing board meeting minutes. The HOA i'm on is the "mobile home park south of Sky Song".

http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Assets/documents/BoardAgendas/Housing/Archived+Minutes+and+Agendas/08-29-06_Minutes.pdf
"Board Member Morgan explained that he thought that the mobile home park south of SkySong would be a prime possibility for a signature project.
Chairman Edwards pointed out that they could be involved at the community/street level contact, should it be marked for redevelopment.
Board Member Sigesmund explained that the City has certain conceptual ideas as to what they would like to see in this area per their General Plan. The Board needs to come up with the mechanics of a successful program to be presented to several developers to get a marketplace reaction, allowing the developers to carry the ball."

No one has contacted us about a private sale. How else would a developer "carry the ball"?

How would you interpet that and what would you do ?

AikanaeR: Is your mobile home park truly a Homeowners Association and has the association been legally recorded as such? If each resident has indeed received official CC&R documents, the recording date and developer should be noted.

Further, review the documents for what the residents actually own, if anything.
It may be you only own the ground your unit sits on, or not. Also, do you pay property taxes? Your local municipal office may be able to assist you with your questions on whether there will be a 'possible redevelopment' of the area.
Good Luck!

Aikanae,
I would not worry about eminant domain just yet, The way these city covernments work, you might be very very old before they get to you with the real plan.
Anyhow, what almost always occurs is that they make offers to the owners first, Eminant donain will happen if and when they cannot reach a deal with the property owners and someone really wants to procede with a project.
We had a trailer park in South Florida where they, each lot owner, were offered a million dollars EACH!!! for their lots and trailers. Of course, there were a few holdouts but in the end, alot of old timers with really old trailers got to be wealthy. So I would just wait and pay a whole lot of attention to what is happening in city hall. You will have to group up and do your homework. The good news is that you are early in your knowledge that something is in the wind.

Sorry I'm answering questions so late. I've forwarded the conversation on to our attorney for research.

I've discovered the major street in front of our property is scheduled for a major streetscape project next year. I don't know if that puts a timeline on this.

The redevelopment plan that we are in was declared in 1995. So this has been some time already.

We do own our own property. The HOA owns community property.

We are considered a 'gateway property' because we are the entrance to the city, access to 2 of the newest freeways, and our longest border is shared with a major regional park including a year around fishing lake, multi-use paths, etc. We are also in the corner of 4 metro areas. Within the last 2 years, there has been 4 major capital developments within walking distance (including accross the street).

No one has notified anyone in our area of anything. Not even townhall meetings held at the local elementary school. We have also had a landlord come in and violate nearly every zoning code and the city did nothing. We are in Superior Court with them now. This is not the first time the city didn't enforce codes. That landlord is also a CPA and Real Estate agent that knew to check with the HOA first. The city withdrew their permit approvals saying they 'falsified information'. The landlord told the judge in a settlement meeting that they intended to bankrupt the association to 'win' their case. Great.

The city is our biggest bill every month because we have community water. If we are bankrupted, the city has a perfect excuse for taking our land.

This city is very aggressive. They have used eminent domain in redevelopment zones constantly, including pushing businesses out to put other businesses in. There is also a HUGE economic divide in the city. They use an average of 6 figures as the median income for the area and based on zip codes, this area is average at $50k. There are 10 new condo developments (not including conversions) just within a mile radius that start at $500k per unit. Some of these are 1 bedroom. They wanna be upscale all the way and claim the down turn in real estate has not affected them (ha-ha-ha. that's bs).

But we are an older community with avg. sales apx $150-200k per unit with is far under what they would like to see as their tax base. We would be totally acceptable if we lived 500' to the south, in another city that doesn't have the 'wannabe upscale' vision.

I'm pissed. From what I know of other actions, the Design Review Board (DRB) has final authority and the city council rarely overturns it. The city council can only declare eminent domain and one project got DRB approval BEFORE they had gotten the underlying property. In another eminent domain case, it took 2 months before the Supieror Court granted them possession. There were no residents there and it was a sole owner. It still scared me how fast they can move and by the time we'd be notified from the City Council, the decisions would already be made.

Oh, one more thing. There is no more developable land available in this area of town. Developers are hungry.

I don't read a lot of protections for property owners and the redevelopment plan uses "fair value" which may be less than "market value".

I hope I am reading into this too much. I would appreciate comments and/or whether anyone has had experience with this. Our water bill has jumped by 30% which I can't seem to get an answer on either. The rate increased by 12% and useage has gone up less than 10%. They also can't really explain the sewer increase of another 32%. I seem to be the only one 'curious' on the board that wants answers. I can't do it all and I'm going to have to drop something.

I could keep my mouth shut and just sell. I just don't like this.

Am I reading this wrong?