Posted on 07/11/2005 3:01:42 PM PDT by lowbridge
Unbelievable if this is really true.
Actually, that only works in South Florida.
Bump
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Saturday, May 21, 2005 |
The city is offering a resident $14,730 for the vacant lot it seized from him, even though it sold the lot to a developer for more than four times that - $6,000.
Now, Charles Shennett said he wants more for his former Summer Street property.
But an attorney familiar with eminent domain said state law supports the method officials used.
In May 2004, the city's Redevelopment Agency, a state-approved board, was granted a court order to employ eminent domain - the government's right to seize property - for Shennett's lot.
Last week, Shennett said he learned for the first time in January that his property had been taken. The city sent him letters in 2004, but Shennett says he never got them.
During a hearing on the matter in Superior Court last week, a judge ruled that Shennett was never properly informed and that the commissioners who approved the $14,730 compensation price for the property must meet again and allow Shennett to get his own appraisal.
The Redevelopment Agency, meanwhile, sold the property to Wayne Asset Management of Kinnelon for $60,000 in December.
Despite the discrepancy in price, which has been a source of contention, the city has the right to pay Shennett less for the property than what it was sold for, said William Ward, a Florham Park attorney with the firm Carlin and Ward, which specializes in eminent domain cases.
Ward said the discrepancy is due to a zoning change.
In 2002, the City Council designated Shennett's property as part of a redevelopment plan for blighted and vacant properties.
The city can sell the land for a higher price because it has more value under the redevelopment plan, Ward said.
Under state law, Shennett "can only claim for how (it was zoned) originally" when he received it, he said. Recently, Shennett hired a lawyer to try to get his land - less than 1/10 of an acre - back.
Harvey Pearlman, Shennett's attorney, claims Shennett's property is worth more than $14,730 and believes its value is not dependent on the Redevelopment Agency's plan.
In the meantime, Wayne Asset is building a new house on Shennett's property.
Wayne Asset is run by Wayne Alston, a former city councilman who in 1992 was charged by federal authorities with taking $6,000 in bribes from a city landlord and paying himself $15,000 in bonuses from state funds.
But a mistrial allowed Alston to plead guilty to a lesser charge, and he was sentenced to five months in prison and a year of supervised release.
Meanwhile, Victor Herlinsky, the Redevelopment Agency's attorney, said the city had always been willing to work with Shennett, who was previously sent correspondence from the city about his property being included in a redevelopment plan.
"We have even permitted several property owners to keep their properties and develop them as long as they show a good faith effort and the ability to develop it," Herlinsky said Friday.
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Wednesday, November 2, 2005 |
PASSAIC - Charles Shennett, a former Summer Street landowner, will receive $78,000 for property taken through eminent domain, but he still wants the land back.
The amount Shennett gets was determined by a condemnation commission appointed by state Superior Court Judge Robert Passero in Paterson. It is $63,270 more than the city's Redevelopment Agency offered last year. After the city condemned the then-vacant lot at 254 Summer St., the property was sold to Wayne Asset Management of Kinnelon for $60,000 in December 2004.
The agency voted Oct. 24 to release the $63,270 to Shennett, who may appeal Passero's May ruling that the city had a right to condemn the property.
"We're going to appeal it again," Shennett said Tuesday. "We don't think we got a fair trial. I want the property back."
Since the city sold the property, the developer built a one-family house there. Lawyers representing Wayne Asset Management have filed a lawsuit against Shennett, seeking a judgment on who owns the property and to recoup legal fees.
Redevelopment Agency Vice Chairman Jonathon Soto said the courts will have to decide any appeal, and that a "small technicality," forced the city to pay more for the property. Shennett has maintained that the city did not notify him of its condemnation plans.
"The focus and the purpose of the Redevelopment Agency is to see the city develop," Soto said. "When the agency first began, we targeted vacant, blighted and abandoned properties. The Shennett property was one targeted because we want to see that neighborhood developed."
This is just one case of a New Jersey landowner fighting officials looking to condemn land through eminent domain because of a U.S Supreme Court decision this year that allows municipalities to acquire property for economic development purposes.
Shennett said he never received notice that the city had condemned his property. In court records, lawyers for the city stated that Shennett "refused to claim certified mailing, and ordinary mailing was not returned."
Harvey Pearlman, Shennett's lawyer, questioned how the city could have originally appraised the property at $14,730 in May 2003 and then again for $65,500 in June 2004. Redevelopment Agency Director Donna Rendeiro said the difference reflects an increase in the value of property targeted for redevelopment.
update
| Sunday, January 1, 2006 |
A former Summer Street landowner is appealing the city's seizure of his property in May 2004 for redevelopment. The notice of appeal, filed Nov. 17 with the Appellate Division of Superior Court, is the latest step in an ongoing legal saga between Charles Shennett and the city's Redevelopment Agency. After condemning Shennett's land, the city sold the property for $60,000 to Wayne Asset Management of Kinnelon, which put a house on it.
"My client said he desperately wants his property back," said Shennett's lawyer, Harvey R. Pearlman. "That may be difficult to achieve, but that's his desire and that's the position he's taken," he said. Pearlman met with attorney Victor J. Herlinsky Jr., representing the city, and Wayne Asset Management attorney John Edwards on Dec. 22 for a settlement conference in Hackensack. Though no one involved would disclose the details of that conference, the parties said they left without a settlement. Though the city initially gave Shennett $14,730 for his property, he appealed that amount in October. A condemnation commission, appointed by Passaic County state Superior Court Judge Robert Passero, ruled that the city owed Shennett an additional $63,270 for the property.
Shennett has long stated that the city never notified him that it was going to condemn his property, adding that he found out about it only when he stopped receiving a tax bill for 2005. Herlinsky said he was confident the city would prevail, because the officials sent Shennett a certified notice in the mail, notifying him of the process. In a letter to Passero, Herlinksy's colleague, Gregory K. Asadurian, wrote that Shennett's assertion that he did not receive the notice was a "blatant lie."
Asadurian attached a copy of a certified receipt, which he said shows Shennett's signature. Pearlman said his client was unsure if that is his signature. He added that, regardless of the signature, the city had no right to take his client's property. Herlinsky said the city took an "empty, garbage-strewn lot" and redeveloped it to a two-family house that provides a home to residents and a ratable for the city.
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