Condemnation Hierarchy—Competing Public Uses

State transportation departments appear to have sufficient authority to take public-use property for their highway and other transportation projects. However, there are some kinds of public-use property, such as parks and recreational areas, for which a transportation department may need specific statutory authority or legislative approval and/or must comply with statutory conditions and requirements before taking the public-use property.

The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Legal Research Digest 78: Condemnation Hierarchy—Competing Public Uses discusses four principal condemnation hierarchies that may be applied to takings of property for transportation projects.

The digest also includes three additional resources:

• Appendix A: State Transportation Departments Responding to the Survey
• Appendix B: Copy of the Survey
• Appendix C: Summary of Transportation Departments’ Responses to the Survey