A.R.S. § 12-1111: Eminent Domain Purposes
Purposes for which eminent domain may be exercised
What can eminent domain be used for in Arizona?
In Arizona, the state, local governments, and even private persons may use eminent domain (forced purchase of private property) for a listed set of uses, subject to other provisions of the same title. Those uses include public buildings and grounds, roads and highways, bridges, railroads, water canals and pipes, utility and communication lines, pipelines, aviation fields, and mining needs such as tunnels and places to dump tailings. They also include byroads to homes and farms, draining and reclaiming land, and private ditches or pipes to bring irrigation water to land that natural watercourses do not reach.
Full statute text
Official text last checked against azleg.gov:
12-1111. Purposes for which eminent domain may be exercised
Subject to the provisions of this title, the right of eminent domain may be exercised by the state, a county, city, town, village, or political subdivision, or by a person, for the following uses:
1. All public uses authorized by the government of the United States.
2. Buildings and grounds for any public use of the state and all other public uses authorized by the legislature.
3. Buildings and grounds for the use of a county, city, town or school district.
4. Canals, aqueducts, flumes, ditches or pipes, for conducting water for the use of the inhabitants or for drainage of a county, city, town or village.
5. Raising the banks of streams, removing obstructions therefrom, or widening, deepening or straightening their channels.
6. Roads, streets and alleys, and all other public uses for the benefit of a county, city, town or village, or the inhabitants thereof, which is authorized by the legislature. The method of apportioning and collecting the costs of the improvements authorized by paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 6 shall be as provided in the law by which they are authorized.
7. Wharves, docks, piers, chutes, booms, ferries, bridges, toll roads, byroads, plank and turnpike roads and highways.
8. Steam, horse, mule, electric and cable railroads or railways.
9. Telegraph and telephone lines and conduits for public communication.
10. Electric light and power transmission lines, pipe lines used for supplying gas, and all transportation, transmission and intercommunication facilities of public service agencies.
11. Aviation fields.
12. Reservoirs, canals, ditches, flumes, aqueducts and pipes, for the use of a county, city, town or village, or its inhabitants, or for public transportation for supplying mines and other industrial enterprises, farms and farm neighborhoods with water for irrigation, domestic and other needful purposes, and for generating electricity.
13. Draining and reclaiming lands, and for floating logs and lumber on nonnavigable streams.
14. Roads, tunnels, ditches, flumes, pipes and dumping places for working mines, and outlets, natural or otherwise, for the flow, deposit or conduct of tailings or refuse matter from mines, and an occupancy in common by the owners or possessors of different mines, or any place for the flow, deposit or conduct of tailings or refuse matter from their several mines.
15. Byroads leading from highways to residences and farms.
16. Private canals, ditches, flumes, aqueducts and pipes for conducting water from natural water courses or bodies or from public sources where the lands to be irrigated are not directly reached by such natural water course or public sources.
17. Pipe lines to carry petroleum, petroleum products or any other liquid.
18. Rights of way, station grounds, pits, yards, sidetracks and other necessary facilities for railways.
Drafted by AI from the official text and checked sentence by sentence against azleg.gov. ClearStatute is run by David Bartlett, who is not an attorney. Legal information, not legal advice — consult a licensed attorney for your situation.