Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 32 - Eminent domain.
32.02 - Who may condemn; purposes.

32.02 Who may condemn; purposes. The following departments, municipalities, boards, commissions, public officers, and business entities may acquire by condemnation any real estate and personal property appurtenant thereto or interest therein which they have power to acquire and hold or transfer to the state, for the purposes specified, in case such property cannot be acquired by gift or purchase at an agreed price:
(1) Any county, town, village, city, including villages and cities incorporated under general or special acts, school district, the department of health services, the department of corrections, the board of regents of the University of Wisconsin System, the building commission, a commission created by contract under s. 66.0301, with the approval of the municipality in which condemnation is proposed, a commission created by contract under s. 66.0303 that is acting under s. 66.0304, if the condemnation occurs within the boundaries of a member of the commission, or any public board or commission, for any lawful purpose, but in the case of city and village boards or commissions approval of that action is required to be granted by the governing body. A mosquito control commission, created under s. 59.70 (12), and a local professional football stadium district board, created under subch. IV of ch. 229, may not acquire property by condemnation.
(2) The governor and adjutant general for land adjacent to the Wisconsin state military reservation at Camp Douglas for the use of the Wisconsin national guard.
(3) Any railroad corporation, any grantee of a permit to construct a dam to develop hydroelectric energy for sale to the public, any Wisconsin plank or turnpike road corporation, any drainage corporation, any interstate bridge corporation, or any corporation formed under chapter 288, laws of 1899, for any public purpose authorized by its articles of incorporation.
(4) Any Wisconsin telegraph or telecommunications corporation for the construction and location of its lines.
(5)
(a) “Foreign transmission provider" means a foreign corporation that satisfies each of the following:
1. The foreign corporation is an independent system operator, as defined in s. 196.485 (1) (d), or an independent transmission owner, as defined in s. 196.485 (1) (dm), that is approved by the applicable federal agency, as defined in s. 196.485 (1) (c).
2. The foreign corporation controls transmission facilities, as defined in s. 196.485 (1) (h), in this and another state.
(b) Any Wisconsin corporation engaged in the business of transmitting or furnishing heat, power or electric light for the public or any foreign transmission provider for the construction and location of its lines or for ponds or reservoirs or any dam, dam site, flowage rights or undeveloped water power.
(6) Any Wisconsin corporation furnishing gas, electric light or power to the public, for additions or extensions to its plant and for the purpose of conducting tests or studies to determine the suitability of a site for the placement of a facility.
(7) Any Wisconsin corporation formed for the improvement of any stream and driving logs therein, for the purpose of the improvement of such stream, or for ponds or reservoir purposes.
(8) Any Wisconsin corporation organized to furnish water or light to any city, village or town or the inhabitants thereof, for the construction and maintenance of its plant.
(9) Any Wisconsin corporation transmitting gas, oil or related products in pipelines for sale to the public directly or for sale to one or more other corporations furnishing such gas, oil or related products to the public.
(10) Any rural electric cooperative association organized under ch. 185 which operates a rural electrification project to:
(a) Generate, distribute or furnish at cost electric energy at retail to 500 or more members of said association in accordance with standard rules for extension of its service and facilities as provided in the bylaws of said association and whose bylaws also provide for the acceptance into membership of all applicants therefor who may reside within the territory in which such association undertakes to furnish its service, without discrimination as to such applicants; or
(b) Generate, transmit and furnish electric energy at wholesale to 3 or more rural electric cooperative associations furnishing electric energy under the conditions set forth in par. (a), for the construction and location of its lines, substation or generating plants, ponds or reservoirs, any dam, dam site, flowage rights or undeveloped water power, or for additions or extension of its plant and for the purpose of conducting tests or studies to determine the suitability of a site for the placement of a facility.
(11) Any housing authority created under ss. 66.1201 to 66.1211; redevelopment authority created under s. 66.1333; community development authority created under s. 66.1335; local cultural arts district created under subch. V of ch. 229, subject to s. 229.844 (4) (c); or local exposition district created under subch. II of ch. 229.
(11m) The Wisconsin Aerospace Authority created under subch. II of ch. 114.
(12) Any person operating a plant which creates waste material which, if released without treatment would cause stream pollution, for the location of treatment facilities. This subsection does not apply to a person with a permit under ch. 293 or subch. III of ch. 295.
(13) Any business entity authorized to do business in Wisconsin that shall transmit oil or related products including all hydrocarbons which are in a liquid form at the temperature and pressure under which they are transported in pipelines in Wisconsin, and shall maintain terminal or product delivery facilities in Wisconsin, and shall be engaged in interstate or international commerce, subject to the approval of the public service commission upon a finding by it that the proposed real estate interests sought to be acquired are in the public interest.
(15) The department of transportation for the acquisition of abandoned rail and utility property under s. 85.09.
(16) The department of natural resources with the approval of the appropriate standing committees of each house of the legislature as determined by the presiding officer thereof and as authorized by law, for acquisition of lands.
History: 1971 c. 100 s. 23; 1973 c. 243, 305; 1975 c. 68, 311; 1977 c. 29, 203, 438, 440; 1979 c. 34 s. 2102 (52) (b); 1979 c. 122; 1979 c. 175 s. 53; 1981 c. 86, 346, 374; 1983 a. 27; 1985 a. 29 s. 3200 (51); 1985 a. 30 s. 42; 1985 a. 187; 1985 a. 297 s. 76; 1987 a. 27; 1989 a. 31; 1993 a. 246, 263; 1993 a. 491 s. 284; 1995 a. 27 s. 9126 (19); 1995 a. 201; 1997 a. 204; 1999 a. 65; 1999 a. 150 s. 672; 1999 a. 167; 2001 a. 30 s. 108; 2005 a. 335; 2007 a. 20, s. 9121 (6) (a); 2009 a. 28, 205; 2011 a. 32; 2013 a. 1; 2015 a. 55.
Cross-reference: See s. 13.48 (16) for limitation on condemnation authority of the building commission.
The inalienability of the power of eminent domain is a well-settled rule. A party with the right to condemn cannot lose that power through contract. The right to condemnation cannot be waived or abrogated by estoppel. Personal rights may be waivable, but public rights are not. Andrews v. Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, 2009 WI App 6, 315 Wis. 2d 772, 762 N.W.2d 837, 07-2541.

Structure Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations