KELO

New London Development Corporation Breaks Eminent Domain Moratorium Pledge

Some Fort Trumbull Residents Ordered to Vacate Homes in 90 Days And Pay NLDC Rent

WEB RELEASE: September 13, 2005
CONTACT:
John Kramer or Lisa Knepper
(202) 955-1300

Washington, D.C.—Breaking its word and defying both Governor M. Jodi Rell and the Connecticut legislature, the New London Development Corporation (NLDC) has apparently decided not to abide by a moratorium called for by both the governor and legislature. At least two residents in so-called Parcel 3 of the Fort Trumbull area on Monday, September 12, 2005, received notices (dated September 9, 2005) that they must vacate the properties in 90 days and must start paying rent to the NLDC during that period.

“The NLDC’s actions are breathtaking in their arrogance and defiance of the wishes of Governor Rell and Connecticut’s legislature,” said Scott Bullock, a senior attorney at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice, which represents the Fort Trumbull homeowners. “The NLDC is an unelected, unaccountable body that has been given the government’s eminent domain power and is out of control. It is time Connecticut’s political leaders at the state and local levels reel in this group that has been abusing the rights of New London property owners,” he added.

Less than two months ago, on July 26, 2005, the NLDC agreed to honor a moratorium called for by the Connecticut legislature and agreed not to seek to take possession of the homes while the legislature considered changing its eminent domain laws.

“Virtually the entire country is against the abuse of eminent domain by the NLDC, but its actions demonstrate that it could not care less what it has done to the rights of the citizenry and reputation of New London,” added Dana Berliner, another Institute senior attorney.

Berliner added that unless the NLDC agrees again to abide by the moratorium, Connecticut political leaders at either the state or local level must formally pass one to force the NLDC not to let anything happen to the homeowners while the Connecticut legislature considers changing its eminent domain laws.

Judge rules landowners don't have to sell to Tempe

In a stunning decision, a Phoenix judge ruled that 13 Tempe property owners don't have to fork over their land to help make way for a $200 million Tempe shopping mall. "It's a big victory for anybody who owns property," said Troy Valentine, a cabinet shop owner whose life has been on hold since after Tempe voted to condemn his property. If Valentine lost the case, the mall developer planned to put a movie theater about where his 12-year-old shop sits. The ruling caps a legal struggle that pitted Tempe and mall developers against a cadre of property owners and small businesses, and the case was closely watched in legal circles. The East Valley already is home to Mesa's Bailey brake shop case, a 2003 decision that became a rallying cry for property rights groups. In June, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could give the government more power to take private property rattled those advocates. Judge Fields sided with the landowners and gave little weight to Tempe's assertions that the area was an environmental time bomb. While the judge agreed that the area should be cleaned up, Fields noted that the state's sole risk assessment of the area concluded that it wasn't a health hazard. The city's documentation about methane hot spots was at least 15 years old, and the methane had probably degraded since then, the judge wrote. Plus, a developer testified that unstable soil, not environmental hazards, were the biggest problem on the site. Tempe failed to show that the mall project constituted a "public use," Fields said. "The private developer Mira Vista Holdings and its principals are the driving forces behind the project not the Plaintiff, City of Tempe." Fields wrote. "Profit, not the public improvement, is the motivating force for this redevelopment," he continued. Field's ruling will toss cold water on cities that may have been emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling against New London, Conn. property owners, said Tim Keller executive director of the Institute for Justice's Arizona chapter....

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