Which Government Can Take My Property in Eminent Domain?

Almost any government entity can take property from private citizens. That would include of course counties, municipalities, state, federal, but also water management districts, also the Department of Environmental Protection. It’s rare, those latter ones. It generally is your state Florida Department of Transportation that is the big condemnor in the state, but it certainly includes the others that I listed, expressway authorities. For what reason? They have to prove that they need it. When I say “they,” that the public needs it. Usually, that is fairly easy to prove, because we have a backlog of roads that are needed in our state, so it’s not that hard for them to prove that they need it for the good of the public.