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A few years ago, things were looking good for Nick Motz. The Hamilton County Farm Bureau member had purchased and renovated a building to house his wife's graphic design business in Norwood, an attractive, middle-income suburb of Cincinnati. The business was growing 30 percent each year, and its location at the intersection of two major thoroughfares meant his wife never had to make a sales call.

However, a Cincinnati developer had different plans for Motz and his neighbors, Motz told an Ohio Senate committee in September.

"(The developer) wanted to expand his nearby Rookwood Commons and build Rockwood Exchange, a complex of private office buildings, condominiums and chain stores to replace the homes and locally owned businesses in our neighborhood," Motz said.

When some residents in the neighborhood declined to sell their property, the Norwood City Council decided to use eminent domain to hand the property over to the developer. Motz, who said his family has a rich history in farming in the county, knew he had to defend his property rights.

"After a year-plus court battle, we lost our prime business location. We were forced to vacate and subsequently watch our building be demolished," he said.

He said that even though he spent countless hours and $250,000 fighting to keep his property, he has no negative feelings toward his neighbors who quickly sold to the developer.

"That's the nice thing about private property, you can keep it if you want or you can sell it," he said.

Motz asked the committee to support legislation introduced by Sens. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland, and Kimberly Zurz, D-Green, that would establish an 18-month moratorium on the taking of private land for economic development. It would also create a 24-person committee that would include Farm Bureau to review Ohio's eminent domain statute.

The legislation comes on the heels of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Kelo Case, which authorized local governments to take private property from citizens to give to other citizens for private economic development.

"Our goal here is to have a long-term, well-reasoned approach (to eminent domain) in Ohio, and in the short term protect private property from the Kelo-type taking," Grendell said.

Grendell expected that the legislation will move quickly and that a revised eminent domain statute could be proposed as early as April 2006. He said the issue is important to farmers and he wants to work with OFBF to find a solution.

"The Farm Bureau has been at the forefront of trying to protect property rights since the Kelo decision," he said.