Rural Issue

Property rights issues in Missouri

The state of Missouri has accepted the transfer of the Rock Island Railroad corridor to the state and Missouri Farm Bureau’s president says they continue to argue against the use of state money to develop it.

Blake Hurst says lots of landowners, including farmers, have little to no input on how that land will be used, which raises a lot of concerns, like biosecurity, “People have livestock facilities close to this line and clearly we want to be conscious of the chance of disease being transmitted as people move along.”

Hurst says they’re looking at a legislative fix, “I think that this one is one that will probably be fought out in the legislature and in the budgeting process and we’ll continue to do what we can to stop the project there.”

The Missouri Farm Bureau is also considering remedies for a state appeals court decision allowing Clean Line Grain Belt to build wind energy transmission lines across northern Missouri using eminent domain. Hurst tells Brownfield Ag News they continue to argue that Grain Belt is not a public entity so the state should not be able to take private lands, “Over 500 landowners will be affected. We think it’s a bad decision. We have a few weeks to decide whether or not to appeal.”

And Hurst says they are also looking into legislative remedies, “Which we will be pursuing when the new session of the Missouri legislative session starts. So, the battle is not over but this was a setback for sure. We are disappointed in the court decision and are examining our alternatives of where to go from here.” The 2020 Missouri legislative session begins January 8^th.