City of Peoria v. Keehner

JUSTICE HEIPLE,

specially concurring:

The bottom line of the majority opinion is correct. The city of Peoria should not prevail in this eminent domain proceeding. Thus, the judgment of the trial court must be reversed.

The majority opinion, however, grounds its reversal on the city’s failure to have held a referendum but ignores the core issue of the city’s power to condemn property outside its corporate limits. In this case it should be held that the city lacks the power to condemn. Hence, the question of holding or not holding a referendum would be, under such circumstance, immaterial.

In the…