From the Asbury Park Press:
Poll: Many N.J. voters oppose using eminent domain for redevelopment
Most New Jersey voters oppose allowing government to take land from its owners for redevelopment, according to a poll released Monday.
The survey also found interest in the topic remains high nearly a year after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed a Connecticut city to use eminent domain to seize homes for commercial use.
Several bills to restrict the use of eminent domain are pending in the state Legislature.
The Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll asked respondents to consider four scenarios under which local and state governments might seize property; none was supported by a majority.
The least objectionable plan, found acceptable by nearly half those polled, would have “dilapidated properties” replaced by better housing and shops. Only two in seven voters said it was acceptable to raze houses and shops for a new school, while one is six said it was OK for active farmland to be taken to build a new school or ball field.
Nine in 10 voters said it was not acceptable to take middle-class housing and replace it with “upscale condos and shops,” said the survey, which was sponsored by the New Jersey Farm Bureau.
Over half those surveyed said they had read or heard quite a lot about eminent domain.
I am oppesed to construction companies yelling eminent domain. How can the use that arguement when they are building 700k condos and 1.5 million dollar homes? I think the term is used too loosely. I do not think any construcition company should be able to freely use the term just becuase they want peoples houses. I would never sell out and if someone ever pulled that arguement saying we want to make condos so we can have more housing available for people, my defense would be well how much are they going to cost? 700k condos are not for the better of the community. Using the Term like contstuction companies do these days is pathectic and honestly I hope more and more people fight for the homes to stay.
All those little shore bungalows gone for luxury condos.
Luxury and Condo shouldn’t be in the same sentence. Especially luxury studio condos…ugh. Kind of like getting a Kia with leather seats.
we must look to Vera Cooking for the answers to such questions… my favorite eminent domain story of all time, and sadly also in NJ…
“Vera Coking, the elderly widow who beat Trump in a celebrated 1998 court fight over possession of her property, says she will stay put in her home of 46 years unless the casino mogul meets her price.
“I told him what I want, and that’s it,” Coking said Thursday, declining to disclose what she is asking for her weatherbeaten house at 127 S. Columbia Place, in the shadow of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.
Coking is the last remaining property owner on a block of land crucial for would-be partners Trump and Wynn to develop a Boardwalk casino project that would replace the aging Trump Plaza.
But recent negotiations between Trump’s casino company and Coking have stalled — an impasse reminiscent of their nationally publicized eminent domain case in the 1990s. A Superior Court judge ruled then that Trump and the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority had no right to seize Coking’s home for an expansion of the Plaza.”
http://tinyurl.com/yz4g54
Hey, at least the developers haven’t been sticking hog heads on ED foes’ stoops…
Caldwell is trying to use eminent domain to get some property that is owned by Calandra’s. Originally, they wanted a variance to put up apartments in an area zoned commercial. Caldwell residents put up a huge fight because the town government has already allowed way too much building. Every available space has high density housing built on it. Now they want to build a bakery and other stores which is what the property is zoned for.
The town wants to take the property for recreation space but I would like to know where they are going to get the money to pay for it. Since the revaluation two years ago, the taxes have gone up significantly. I don’t like the idea that they can take the land just because they want it.