CHEYENNE - Property rights advocates failed to gain any ground Wednesday, as the House beat back a series of amendments to a measure that changes the law that allows government and private industry to condemn private land for public purposes.

Most of the amendments offered during two hours of debate would have increased the lead notice industry must give landowners and would have required the buyers or condemnors to use comparable sales and appraisals in setting fair market value.

The bill comes up for second House reading today.

The original purpose of the bill is to deal with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the right of a community to condemn private property and then lease it to a private developer. A section of the bill deals with that case by specifying that public purpose "does not include the taking of private property by a pubic entity for the purpose of transferring the property to another private individual or private entity."

As the bill now stands, it mandates the takers or condemnors to conduct good-faith negotiations with the property owners. The language in the current law is permissive.

The bill has been changed so it no longer allows jury trials in condemnation cases.

Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, who was prime sponsor of many of the failed amendments, said he will try again.

"I just want the landowner to be treated more fairly," he said after the House adjourned Wednesday afternoon.

"They ought to be able to know what a company paid other people and to have an appraisal," he added.

Laurie Goodman of the Landowners' Association of Wyoming said the bill is going backward from current law in terms of the landowners' period to negotiate.

Goodman said the principle is simple: "When you begin to plan a project on land that doesn't belong to you, tell the landowners."

"The issue that is disturbing to us at this point is the lack of a priority that property owners have superior rights," she added. "If there should be any default, it should be in our favor."

She noted that the bill is endorsed by industry, the condemnors.

But Rep. Doug Samuelson, R-Cheyenne, the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources, said a lot of landowners also support the bill.

"But they don't have a lobbyist," he added.

"They told us they don't want us to screw up the great relationships they have with industry," he added.

Some of them receive annual payments from the companies, in addition to lump-sum settlements, and they like that, Samuelson said.

"I'm just trying to keep to the middle of the road," he said.

He said he is aware of abuses, such as a case in Albany County where pipeline officials told the landowners they would be back in 10 months. The next thing the landowner received was notice of condemnation action.

Goodman mentioned the experience of Jim Willadsen, who ranches outside of Cheyenne and was unaware of a Cheyenne Bureau of Public Utilities project that had been planned for years and would affect his property.

"By the time they gave him notice, it was a done deal," she said. The rancher and his neighbors dealt with the situation "politically," she added.

That's the reason her group of landowners feels so strongly about proper advance notice, Goodman said.

Another failed amendment Wednesday would have specified that private property couldn't be condemned if state or federal lands were available for a project.

"If there are public lands available, then those lands should be used for the project, unless the private landowners want to make a deal and have the project come on their land," said Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse, sponsor of the failed amendment.

"My gut instincts tell me that private property should be one of the most sacred rights that we protect, and that public land should be used for public purposes wherever possible," Wallis said.

But others questioned whether Wallis' proposal would lead to inefficiency in laying out routes for pipelines and power lines..

Rep. Del McOmie, R-Lander, said, "My concern is that this language is so broad that it would zigzag all over trying to stay on the public land."

Another proposed amendment that would have required companies to pay landowners for entry onto their property for appraisals and other assessment work also failed.

Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, warned that the Wyoming Department of Transportation does a lot of surveying. He said the state shouldn't put the department in the position of having to pay landowners whatever they ask to conduct such work.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.