Warned their houses could be bulldozed for a shopping mall, a car dealership or other private development, California voters overwhelming approved an initiative limiting government seizures, the Associated Press reports.
Proposition 99 will ban governments from forcing most Californians to sell their homes for private development projects.
At the same time, voters on Tuesday defeated a competing initiative that would have forbidden government from seizing business, farms, churches and phased out rent control.
“I think for sure the enactment of 99 will drive the stake through the eminent domain fraud in California,” said Tom Adams, board president of the California League of Conservation Voters, which backed the measure.
With 77 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 99 had a 63 percent yes vote and Proposition 98 had a 60 percent no vote.
The passage of Proposition 99 comes three years after a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, where the court found that a Connecticut redevelopment authority had the right to seize private property for hotels, shopping centers and other private developments.
The decision marked a departure from the traditional use of eminent domain, which is typically used when governments build roads, schools or other public projects.
