BIO

Chloe Wain is a second-year student at Florida State University in the Honors Program pursuing a Dual Degree in Political Science, Editing, Writing, and Media, and Economics, with a minor in Spanish. Chloe serves as a Research Assistant to Dr. Crystal Taylor of the DeVoe L. Moore Center to analyze the usage of eminent domain upon a public infrastructure project in Tallahassee, Florida. She will continue research with the DeVoe L. Moore Center as an Honors in the Major and is in-training to become a UROP Leader. Chloe is heavily involved in scholarship, leadership, and service in hopes to advocate for human rights as a public defender. She serves as the Student Representative of the Academic Honor Policy Appellate Committee, a University Ambassador with the Academic Recruitment Organization, Leadership Engagement Specialist of Alpha Delta Pi, and a member of Garnet and Gold Key as well as Garnet and Gold Scholar Society. Chloe will serve as a Legal Intern at Do Campo and Thorton, P.A. in Summer of 2022 and plans to join the Peace Corps after graduation.

Just Compensation: Capital Cascades Trail Project Segment 3-DB

Abstract

Within large infrastructure projects, state and local governments employ the right of eminent domain to condemn private property for public purposes. To be constituted as legal, the government is required to provide “just compensation” towards condemned properties. As displacement can undermine the social and cultural fabrics of communities, economists continue to examine appropriate levels of compensation for displaced individuals under local, state, and federal requirements. The study examines “just compensation” practices by focusing on the displacement of a historically African American neighborhood, Boynton-Still, in Tallahassee, Florida. As the research team compiled property owner and tenant compensation levels per condemned parcel from a public records request, the study evaluates the appropriateness of compensation payments by calculating totals and averages and comparing results to applicable regulations. Preliminary findings indicate the City of Tallahassee and Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency, a joint city-county agency, did not apply minimum federal compensation standards for tenants in conjunction with a federal grant provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. As compensation levels on eminent domain projects can vary based on funding sources, policy-makers should be informed that grant allocation agreements between governments can “trigger” varying compensation standards.

Keywords: economics, eminent domain, compensation