Photo: Representative Bud Hulsey Photo Credit: Adelia Kirchner / The Tennessee Conservative
The Tennessee Conservative [By David Seal] –
Representative Bud Hulsey (R-Kingsport) presented House Bill 444 to the Cities and Counties Subcommittee on Wednesday February 19, 2025. The proposed legislation is aimed at protecting well-kept code-compliant property from eminent domain in redevelopment areas.
The subcommittee advanced the bill to the House State and Local Government Committee.
The bill is known as the Tennessee Property Rights Protection Act which redefines blight, deletes the “blighted area” definition, provides extra due process for landowners in a redevelopment area, and eliminates condemnation of non-blighted property for private development, redevelopment or urban renewal projects.
Jefferson County Commission, a conservative legislative body in East Tennessee, has made multiple resolutions in the past 9 years calling for property rights reform, specifically for reform of Tennessee’s broadly written statutes that enable code-compliant property to be condemned for private development.
A copy of Jefferson County’s most recent resolution on eminent domain reform and background on the proposed legislation can be found in the article linked below.
CALL TO ACTION
The companion Senate Bill SB480 sponsored by Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday February 25th.
If you would like to help support the Senate bill, please contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the link provided here and ask them to support SB 480.
Sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.bobby.harshbarger@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.sara.kyle@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.london.lamar@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.brent.taylor@capitol.tn.gov, Sen.dawn.white@capitol.tn.gov
About the Author: David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, 917 Society Volunteer, and past Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a citizen lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level. David is also a 2024 winner of The Tennessee Conservative Flame Award & has received an accolade from the Institute For Justice for successfully lobbing the TN legislature to protect property rights. David can be reached at david@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
