How's this for a surprise: City seized his lot and sold it (Eminent Domain in New Jersey)

http://www.nj.com/ ^ | 7/11/05 | STEVE CHAMBERS

[lowbridge]

One day in January, Charlie Shennett, a 60-year-old disabled mechanic, went to Passaic City Hall to find out why he hadn't received a tax bill for the vacant lot he owned on Summer Street.

Shennett, who has lived in an apartment on Dayton Avenue in Passaic for decades, had dutifully paid taxes on the site of his childhood home since it burned down in 1987.

At the tax collector's office, Shennett was surprised to learn that he no longer owned the property. Without his knowledge, the city had taken it several months earlier as part of a redevelopment effort.

Later, he would discover the city set aside $14,730 as compensation for him, then turned around and sold the lot for $60,000 to developer Wayne Alston, a former city councilman who went to prison in the 1990s on corruption charges.

"I asked them, 'How can you do this to me? I paid my taxes,'" Shennett said. "They were like, 'We don't know, we don't know. It's the city.' Everybody went running."

-snip-

The practice has become increasingly common in New Jersey, with towns turning their old industrial, warehouse or residential sections into large-scale development projects. Towns argue they need the threat of condemnation -- long used to take property to build roads, schools and other things -- to prevent a few holdout property owners from spoiling large-scale redevelopment plans.

In Passaic, the city has used its powers to lean on the owners of dozens of properties deemed to be rundown to force improvements. Mayor Samuel Rivera trumpeted this sprucing up of the city in his successful campaign for re-election this spring.

[azhenfud]

"If they can sell it to the developer for $60,000, then it is logical to assume the fair market value of the property is .....$60,000."

Nope. As another FReeper so elloquently quipped, he was "screwn".

[goldwatergirlva]

Nah...not a chance. The FMV of a taking is based on comps, just like any appraisal, except that those doing it have an interest in selecting low comps. This is why valuations are challenged in court. The MARKET value is what someone is willing to pay for it. Two completely different things.

[DeFault User]

As another FReeper so elloquently quipped, he was "screwn".

I thought in the Northeast that was the pluperfect subjunctive, "scrod".

[Clemenza]

Deranged Lunatic Staggering in the Street.

Well, I'm sorry if I kept you up all those nights. The voices inside my head just needed responding too.

[Clemenza]

BTW: What happenned to you, did you relocate to East Orange or Paterson?

[motzman]

Well, I'm sorry if I kept you up all those nights

No, no, it helped me fall asleep--it used to drown out the sounds of my sobs and wails of despair.

Now I'm in Cedar Grove. The only thing that keeps me up now is the sound of Tom Cruise's spaceship taking off and landing when he's in town.

Nice guy, though.

[Clemenza]

You mean "Guido Grove?" Don't you ever get sick of the Coogines talking about how "beautiful" Bloomfield and Newark were (BULLSH-T!) before the "animals" moved in.

Only town in Essex County I would ever consider is Short Hills. Nevertheless, Guido Grove is a half step up from Passaic for sure...

Meanwhile, the voices inside my head continue in Seattle.

[motzman]

Yep, Guido Grove is correct. Half the people have been living here almost all there lives, bought the houses cheap, and now are sitting on gold mines disguised as houses with tiny properties. The other half are dumping 500k+ on houses that were 200k a couple years ago.

Values have exploded--house I'm in went up about 175K in 21/2 years (of course I don't own it). Unbelieveable amount of cops here---most "working class" people are on the taxpayer's quarter (used to be dime, but inflation...)

Also, just about every black person who drives through on Pompton Ave gets pulled over. I really don't like it too much here, but it suits my needs, and I have to be close to NYC.

[Clemenza]

When I was a kid on Long Island, it never ceased to amaze me how cops and their teacher/public adminstrator wives could afford to live in such neighborhoods.

I assume your renting, as one needs two incomes to buy in the Tri-State area.

[Lurker]

Carl Drega, call your office.

L

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

If they can sell it to the developer for $60,000, then it is logical to assume the fair market value of the property is .....$60,000.
I'm buying it. The town set the price (14K) and there is no negotiation. Liberalism is showing it's ugly face once again.

You have to understand economics. Since developers don't have to make an offer on residential property but just get the city to take it, commercial pricing never figures into the market value of the real estate until the city makes essentially a commercial-to-commercial sale because the city can wait for the highest bid. Before that, the lot is only worth what someone might pay for the lot to put a similar house there, knowing that it will never appreciate to an owner because of commercial development. Since by this time no one was going to do that only to have it condemned, the property was basically worthless to an individual seller except maybe for a vegetable garden.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

So, like when are they going to color in the grey areas and draw Alaska to scale?

[freepatriot32]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.

I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

List of Ping lists

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[hdrabon]

It isn't liberalism --
SCOTUS has proven with the New London ruling that it is the legal industry. THIS town's leaders, in consort with the town's supreme court (the town attorney), MADE LAW for the benefit of their powerful friends, most of whom are in real estate in one way or another, which is IN EVERY CASE IN THIS LAND DIRECTLY controlled at the state and local level by THE LEGAL INDUSTRY!

Since the US Congress and all the State Legislatures are comprised of LAWYERS (as the industry MOST represented in those bodies), there is no relief for the rest of us.

It is the US Legal Industry against the people it earns billions and billions from every year in an unregulated way and through payments from local taxpayersto local supreme courts (municipal and county attorneys).

It's worse than you think, and wait till you see what they have planned next!

"Don't piss down my back and tell me its raining." The outlaw, Josey Wales.

End Black Collar crime. . . . Get lawyers out of politics.

[hdrabon]

By the way -- That's why my veteran wife and I began "publishing" that we would begin flying our American flag upside down on July 4, and actually did so and continue to do so.

Our country is in distress and this is a legitimate means to express our concerns down here in Union Co., North Carolina's nexus of evil. . . .

HDRabon

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Participate,Vote the bastards out and quite yer damn bitching.....

Where you live, can one person "vote the bastards out"? If not, how much money do you think it would take to organize enough voters to do so? Wouldn't the time and money to be expended be more than the money lost through the taking? The politicians know this, and thus tend to be careful not to rip off too many people at one time.

[motzman]

I assume your renting, as one needs two incomes to buy in the Tri-State area.

Oh yeah. Barring a lottery win or windfall lawsuit, I'll NEVER be able to afford a house.

[Clemenza]

Pardon the expression, but "I feel your pain."

I went looking at Condos not too long ago and almost cried when I saw what they wanted to sell me for X amount of dollars. I guess I'll be renting until Mrs. Clemenza comes along with her additional income. Sure, I could afford to live in Tacoma (think Elizabeth) or the Rainier Valley (think Irvington), but I won't.

On the plus side, rents are considerably cheaper here than in NYC. I live near downtown, in a new building and pay HALF of what I would pay in Manhattan.

[motzman]

It is really unbelievable at this point. I am fortunate that I'm able to live with a friend who does well, while I develop my stand-up career in NYC (got my first "mini-showcase" at Caroline's on Saturday). Not having an MBA, any corporate job I could get wouldn't make me nearly enough money to actually buy a house, so I'm concentrating (actually re-concentrating) on the entertainment industry.

Here's a little "roll" I've been workshopping with some success:

(Setup/Premise--I'm broke)

"I'm so broke, the only tatoo I could afford was done in invisible ink"

"I can't afford an Ipod--I have an old AM/FM radio with headphones the size of earmuffs...I call it an Ipoor"

"Most successful comics are Jewish...I tried to convert but I failed the credit check"

"Gas is so expensive I can only drive on odd numbered months"

Oh well, we'll see what happens!