Section 10.9A Scope of the Power; Procedures

• Library: Eminent Domain 3rd Edition 2013

A.R.S. §§ 9-511 through 9-520 authorize municipal corporations to engage in the business of a public utility. These statutes also authorize the acquisition of public utilities by the exercise of eminent domain, and they set forth specific procedures and valuation standards for such condemnations.

Before a municipal corporation can acquire a utility, it must submit the issue to its voters.

A.R.S. § 9-514

City of Phoenix v. Kolodziejski, 399 U.S. 204, 90 S. Ct. 1990, 26 L. Ed. 2d 523 (1970)

Clay v. Town of Gilbert, 160 Ariz. 335, 773 P.2d 233 (App. 1989)

A.R.S. § 9-516(A) (tin pipe law) prohibits municipal competition with an operating public utility which is furnishing adequate service, as follows:

It is declared as the public policy of the state that when adequate public utility service under authority of law is being rendered in an area, within or without the boundaries of a city or town, a competing service and installation shall not be authorized, instituted, made or carried on by a city or town unless or until that portion of the plant, system and business of the utility used and useful in rendering such service in the area in which the city or town seeks to serve, has been acquired.

A.R.S. § 9-511 authorizes a city or town to acquire a utility operation either within or without its corporate limits.

Condemnation actions to acquire a utility may be brought under either A.R.S. § 9-511 etseq. or under the general eminent domain statutes, A.R.S. § 12-1111 etseq.

A municipality may acquire a private utility company either within or without its corporate limits and may consider future growth in determining the necessity for the taking.

Citizens Utils. Water Co. v. Superior Court, 108 Ariz. 296, 497 P.2d 55 (1972), cert.denied, 409 U.S. 1022, 93 S. Ct. 462, 34 L. Ed. 2d 314 (1972)

Sende Vista Water Co. v. City...