Posted on 06/17/2005 5:55:44 AM PDT by tahiti
Reba June Thompson and her son, Howard, at 7016 South Grand Avenue, are the last holdouts against a $40 million shopping-center project under way near Carondelet Park in St. Louis. One by one, their 19 neighbors took the money and moved on. Demolition crews moved in. The city has taken the Thompsons to court, trying to claim their well-maintained brick bungalow by eminent domain.
Desco Group, the Schnuck family's development company, has bought most of the 30 acres near Interstate 55 and Loughborough Avenue for its Loughborough Commons shopping center.
In March, the city pledged $11 million in tax subsidies for the new center.
Two weeks ago, St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy J. Wilson held three days of hearings and is awaiting written arguments from the lawyers. There's no word yet on when he will rule.
The family's lawyer, Michael A. Wolff, said the Thompsons' battle is a long-shot effort that rests almost entirely upon a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. In February, the court heard arguments over a similar battle in New London, Conn., where some residents don't want to sell for a city-sponsored commercial development.
Without the hope for a friendly decision, Wolff said, Missouri law and court decisions would be all against them. But he thinks the precedent is wrong.
"The condemnation law as it has evolved in Missouri is atrocious," said Wolff.
Alderman Matt Villa, D-11th Ward, who sponsored the project, said it will be good for the city and the neighborhood. Villa said most of the Thompsons' former neighbors were pleased with Desco's offers.
"I have a lot of empathy for the Thompsons. They plain don't want to give up their home," Villa said. "But we can't allow one property to derail the whole project."
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Missouri Constitution, Bill of Rights, Article I,
Section 28. That private property shall not be taken for private use with or without compensation, unless by consent of the owner, except for private ways of necessity, and except for drains and ditches across the lands of others for agricultural and sanitary purposes, in the manner prescribed by law; and that when an attempt is made to take private property for a use alleged to be public, the question whether the contemplated use be public shall be judicially determined without regard to any legislative declaration that the use is public.
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My city is watching the CT case. They want to use eminent domain to force a BK out. People have to start fighting the improper, illegal and unconstitutional use of eminent domain for the project du jour. This was not our Founding Fathers' intention. But then again, those self-evident truths are seemingly not so self-evident to dumbed down Americans.
"I have a lot of empathy for the Thompsons. They plain don't want to give up their home," Villa said. "But we can't allow one property to derail the whole project."
Uh yeah we can Scooter.
They need to take their bloody shopping sprawl somewhere else and the Government needs to be made to stop this kind of crap NOW.
"...the Thompsons' battle is a long-shot effort..."
Just plain sad.....
What's a BK?
The homeowners have every right to extract every penny they think they deserve for their property. If the contractor requires their property, he will pay the bill. Every voter of that town should have been paying close attention and should be heading to the next election prepared to sweep clean their legislature.
The link doesn't work but the story is one we've heard again and again.
Low volume ping list
FReepmail me to be on or off this list.
Show up with bulldozers and wreck the place.
The (former) owners might complain, but who listens to homeless drifters anyway?
I don't think they should be allowed to take this person's property. That said, half the time I think these cases are just to squeeze more money out of the shopping center. If all your neighbors have sold, why would you stay there?
My guess is, if they were to abandon the project, the homeowner would not be as happy as she claims. I can see not wanting to give up a family farm. But a block house, with the neighborhood abandoned?
That's about all I needed to see.
It's worth ten times whatever the current offer is - and the developers know it.
Eminent domain is just a way for developers to use the government to artificially deflate property prices - it's fundamentally anti-business.
What's wrong with that?
If you want something in America you're supposed to pay for it.
Hillary has quite a few names in her Rolodex of people that could "persuade" them to move. Or so I hear.
If the city or developer wants the property, pay what the seller wants for it or leave then the hell alone.
"No person shall...be deprived of Life, Liberty, or Property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."
If the folks don't want to sell, feeling that no compensation in this case is "just", then they don't have to.
How much more of this can we take?
There's no state constitution that allows the government to take the property of one person and give it to another private owner.
Government may take private land for "public use" under eminent domain. Public use is just that - schools, roads, utility easements.
Courts and crooked politicians have redefined public use into the "public good." Public good is nothing more than the American version of the Marxist "common good."
The definition of public good can be expanded by crooked politicians into anything they want it to mean. If private property can be taken for the public good, private property ceases to exist and we'll soon be living in a totalitarian country.
Time is money. Offer an undisclosed settlement amount not to be revealed and allow the homemakers the choice of a new home wherever they so choose. Then doze the damn place.
The condemnation law as it has evolved in New Jersey.
bump!
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