February 17, 2025
As Rural Georgia Town Battles Eminent Domain, One Family’s Fight Illustrates The Stakes
'We've had to fight to keep this land. It's always somebody coming in trying to bamboozle you out of it.'
On Feb. 4, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig L. Schwall Sr. ruled that despite the Sandersville Railroad Co. would be allowed to proceed to build a rail spur through a historically Black neighborhood in rural Sparta, Georgia.
Families like Blaine and Diane Smith claimed the use of eminent domain would uproot their family’s legacy and dump hazardous materials on their property,
According to Capital B News, the 600 acres of land has been in the Smith family since Blaine’s grandfather purchased it in the 1920s. It’s been used for farming, fishing, and hunting.
Thanks to the Sandersville Railroad Co. invoking eminent domain, that legacy could be in jeopardy.
Per a filing from the Georgia Public Service Commission, the railroad wants 11 acres from three parcels owned by Blaine and Diane; approximately six acres from a cousin, Marvin Smith Jr and his wife, Patricia; and approximately two acres from Blaine’s nephew, Ahmad Lee.
The railroad would run through the Smith family’s property, potentially damaging the land with hazardous materials that could be transported via the train tracks and disrupting the peace.
Sandersville Railroad claims that hazardous materials will not be transported via the railroad, but that doesn’t satisfy Blaine Smith.
“We’ve had to fight to keep this land. It’s always somebody coming in trying to bamboozle you out of it,” he told Capital B. “There’s people trying to come hunt on it and trespass on it. It’s gonna be easier for them to do that if we put a railroad through the middle of it.…You asked me, “What things bother me about it?” I mean, everything bothers me about it.”
“We understand some of the property owned by the Smith family is special to them given their heritage, and we regret that they may have felt that our initial offers, based on independent appraisals, were not adequate,” Benjamin Tarbutton III said in a statement. “We would welcome the opportunity to re-engage in meaningful conversations about how both the landowners and Hancock County can benefit from the Hanson Spur.”
Although Tarbutton and Sandersville Railroad have emphasized the railroad’s potential role in bringing economic stability to Sparta, citing the railroad’s ability to raise the income ceiling of residents in the area to $90,000 in a town where the median yearly income is approximately $34,000, residents remain skeptical.
In fall 2024, after the Georgia Public Service Commission voted unanimously to approve the rail spur, requiring only 11 minutes to do so, the Institute for Justice appealed the decision and argued that the rail did not meet the requirements for “legitimate public use.”
According to Bill Maurer, a senior attorney for the Institute of Justice, the rail ia “entirely for the benefit of a handful of private companies is not a public use under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions and Georgia’s eminent domain laws.”
Maurer continued, “We look forward to the Georgia Supreme Court’s review and are thankful that our clients will not have to deal with Sandersville building tracks on their property until the higher court weighs in.”
Diane Smith, meanwhile, remains hopeful that the Institute of Justice’s lawsuit will succeed at protecting what her family has spent the past two generations building.
“Is it against the law to protect what you have?” she asked. “We want to build generational wealth for our children, but not off the backs of someone else.”
Blaine added, “Every time you hear an eminent domain case…it’s them against us, and we’re the bad guys because we try to hold on to what we have…Leave us alone. Let’s make this clear: They are looking to get our land to make money for them. If we win and they don’t…there’s no compensation for us. There’s nothing in it for us other than our peace of mind, and that’s what we want.”
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