Mo. Rev. Stat. § 88.497

This is the official text of Mo. Rev. Stat. § 88.497, part of Missouri’s Rev. Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of Missouri, published by the state as "Rev. Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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88.497 Condemnation of private property.

Official statutory text

88.497. Condemnation of private property. — Private property may be taken by the cities of the third class for public use for the purpose of establishing, opening, widening, extending or altering any street, avenue, alley, wharf, creek, river, watercourse, market place, public park or public square, and for establishing market houses, and for any other necessary public purposes.

(RSMo 1939 § 6998) Prior revisions: 1929 § 6852; 1919 § 8334; 1909 § 9261 (1998) A municipality's general statutory authority to condemn private property is not sufficient to condemn property devoted to prior public use for another public use which will destroy, impair or interfere with such prior use. Smithville v. St. Luke's Northland Hospital, 972 S.W.2d 416 (W.D.Mo.). (2014) Section authorizing third-class city authority to condemn private property for public use does not confer authority to condemn for blight; section was enacted prior to state constitutional provision allowing the General Assembly to permit non-charter cities to utilize eminent domain to eliminate blighted areas. City of North Kansas City v. K.C. Beaton Holding Co., LLC, 417 S.W.3d 825 (Mo.App.W.D.).

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.