Take It or Leave It: Eminent Domain for Economic Development-Statutes, Ordinances, & Politics, Oh My!

North Texas is the focus of this Comment because it is a microcosm of the interaction between competing economic and social forces, both external, in the form of global competition, and internal, as an area of the state with one of the country\u27s fastest growing and most diverse populations. Section II of this article will examine this context, as well as federal and Texas judicial actions, to assess the economic development takings environment prior to the most recent federal case and acts of the Texas Legislature. Section III will explain the effect this combination has had in producing a constitutional imbalance. Section IV will conduct an examination of proposed solutions at the constitutional, judicial, and legislative levels from the literature and case law on the subject. Section V will conclude with predictions about the likely success of recent legislative enactments developing a brighter line between individual property rights and community economic development. The focus of this article is on the public purpose aspect of eminent domain use and strictly pertains to the taking of real property in fee simple absolute as perceived today, not on the myriad other purposes to which the eminent domain power can and has been applied,\u27 nor the various conceptions of property over time