Except as otherwise expressly provided by statute and subject to any limitations imposed by statute, a local public entity may acquire property by eminent domain outside its territorial limits for water, gas, or electric supply purposes or for airports, drainage or sewer purposes if it is authorized to acquire property by eminent domain for the purposes for which the property is to be acquired.
§ 1240.125.Purposes For Which Local Public Entity May Acquire Property Outside Territorial Limits
Title 7. Eminent Domain Law · Chapter 3. The Right to Take · Article 2. Rights Included in Grant of Eminent Domain Authority · Enacted 1975 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 29, 2026
In one sentenceSection 1240.125 lets a local public entity exercise eminent domain outside its own territorial limits for water, gas, or electric supply, airports, or drainage and sewer purposes, provided it already holds authority to condemn property for that particular purpose and no other statute restricts the acquisition.
Full Text of § 1240.125
Plain-English Summary
This section is one of the express statutory grants that § 1240.050 requires before a local public entity can condemn property beyond its own borders. It covers five categories of infrastructure: water, gas, or electric supply, airports, and drainage or sewer purposes.
The grant isn't unconditional. The local public entity still has to be independently authorized to acquire property by eminent domain for whatever purpose is at stake. This section supplies the territorial reach, not the underlying power itself, and any other statutory limitation on that authority still applies.
Read alongside § 1240.050, this section shows how the general territorial restriction and its statutory exceptions work together: the baseline rule confines a local entity to its own limits, and provisions like this one carve out the specific infrastructure categories where crossing that line has long been recognized as necessary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which purposes let a local public entity condemn property outside its own limits?
Water, gas, or electric supply, airports, and drainage or sewer purposes, under § 1240.125.
Does this section itself give a local entity the power to condemn property?
No. It extends the territorial reach of authority the entity must already have for that purpose under some other statute.
How does this section relate to § 1240.050?
Section 1240.050 confines local entities to their territorial limits unless a statute expressly or impliedly grants broader authority; § 1240.125 is one of those express grants.
Amendment History
Added by Stats. 1975, Ch. 1275.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 29, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: local agency eminent domain outside city limits californiaextraterritorial condemnation water gas electric california