Usually the first step in the imminent domain process is that the property owner receives a notice that their
property may be taken. That’s usually accompanied by a letter from an appraiser indicating that the appraiser
has been hired by the government agency to appraise the property and that the property might be part of a public project. That’s usually the first step.
A lot of times there’ll be public hearings. If it’s a major project, you’re going to hear about environmental
clearances, for example, squa clearances with respect to having all the environmental issues uncovered and
disclosed. And so the property owner might find that their property is subject to a a sequ analysis for a
public project and they haven’t even been told about the project because the project might be 20 years in the future.
Typical example of that would be a a long-term subway line and they might find that their property’s designated as
a station, but the funding isn’t available for 20 years and it’s going to take 20 years to do the the SQA clearance and obtain all the rightway.
So they have basically plenty of time to deal with the issue, but at the same time the cloud of condemnation hovers
over the property as though uh and and it impacts what the property owner can do with it, including sell it, lease it, etc.