Posted on 05/23/2002 4:31:24 AM PDT by chambley1
Eminent domain powers invoked
Arlington County Manager Rod Carlee threatened the owners of a 465-unit apartment building with the use of eminent domain if the owners did not sell the property to a development organization specializing in low-income housing.
"The importance to the County of [the Gates of Arlington] cannot be underestimated and to that end I am prepared to consider the use of the County's power of eminent domain to acquire the property," Mr. Carlee, a Democrat, wrote in a May 14, 2002, letter to the Texas-based Hall Financial Group.
Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property for public use with compensation for the owner.
Rick Bridges, assistant county manager for public affairs, said the letter was not a threat, but simply outlined for the owners all the county's options as it tried to obtain the property.
"It is a tool in the toolbox," Mr. Bridges said. "We have rarely used it in Arlington. This is certainly an area where it would be appropriate."
The Gates of Arlington, a two-story apartment building in the Buckingham section of the county, has been on the market for several months. Last week the Arlington County Board allocated $500,000 to the Arlington Housing Corporation Inc. (AHC) — a private, nonprofit developer of low- and moderate-income housing — to acquire the complex from Hall Financial Group for about $35 million.
The county is hoping to finalize the deal this week and have a closing date of late June or early July.
In his May 14 letter to the Hall Financial Group, Mr. Carlee said the county was joining forces with AHC in order to preserve a vibrant, multicultural community and critically needed affordable housing. While other groups have approached Hall Financial about the Arlington property, Mr. Carlee said that the AHC plan was "superior" and that was why the county was working with them.
"AHC provided a specific and clearly superior plan to ensure that [the county's objectives of continued low-to-moderate income housing] are successfully met," Mr. Carlee wrote.
Charles Rinker, a member of the Arlington County Housing Commission, defended the board's actions, saying affordable housing was the No.1 crisis facing the county.
"The United Way has listed affordable housing as the major crisis in Arlington County," Mr. Rinker said. "It seems wherever affordable housing gets torn down, nothing gets rebuilt affordable housing is an important public purpose where eminent domain could be used."
Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said, "I personally have supported [eminent domain] when we needed it for schools or sidewalks. It is a tool that could be used, and I would not hesitate to do that [in this case], but that was not necessary."
Mark Blocher, director of corporate communications for the Hall Financial Group, said it is company policy not to discuss any transactions until the sale is complete.
Some Arlington residents question whether officials are stepping over the line.
"This is the most grotesque overuse of municipal power that I have ever heard of," said Mike Lane, a former County Board member. "What is it that the county is trying to accomplish that they have to steal a private landowner's property?"
John Antonelli, another member of the Arlington County Housing Commission, said these actions were an ominous precedent.
"I think its very scary that when the county says it wants something, it can just come in and take it," he said. "Moreover, it's a more expensive and insufficient use of county funds."
I've done a huge amount of renovation to my house since buying it a year and a half ago. I can imagine how angry I'd be if the County demanded it and failed to recognize the improvements. I'd be bitter for the rest of my life. But if they paid me a fair market price, I'd get over it.
The authors of the Constitution were masters of the English language. If they were certain of the need to limit land grabs to the circumstances that were most obvious to them at the time, I think they'd have written it without such open language.
Especially since only 2 years ago the Arlington County gov't permitted the razing of the entire Arna Valley housing complex so that nice condos could be built at the Glebe Rd. / I 395 interchange. I don't understand why they didn't eminent domain Arna Valley - which, I understand had 3000 people living in it --and just keep the housing in place.
now, in our fair city of rottenchester, you can count the NON-boarded up houses on one hand (through at least 5-6 blocks on a street).
Maybe the statists are getting some common sense...nah, more likely still asleep.
(This is a response in kind to a prior dane posting)
1. take a private owner's property away for perceived "code violations" (the first step in being jacked via 'eminent domain')
2. put it in the name of a "neighborhood empowerment group"
3. receive gov't funding from HUD to fix up the house, i.e. slap some vinyl siding on it
4. resell it to some unsuspecting sucker who will pay 300 to 500% of what the property is really worth (we're talking asking price here folks, not payments with interest calculated in)
p.s., here in upstate NY, code violations can be anything from a loose siding board to a barking dog to an open air drug deal that happened to go down on the curb next to your property.
In recent years, they have been witholding homes from purchase by the general public and only selling to "affordable housing organizations" or actually keeping ownership of them and renting them to low income people. I was denied the opportunity to bid on or buy from the twice and that was the explaination given.
Maybe the statists are getting some common sense...nah, more likely still asleep.
(This is a response in kind to a prior dane posting)
Yep, probably in response to this thread.
....I guess the latest example of this vibrancy would be Isreal.....
Around here we have those fights about affordable housing.
"Affordable" actually means "subsidized" - the builders get above market for their product and we pay the difference up front, then subsidize the residents' mortgage over time.
I live in an affordable house - one that I could afford to buy and pay the mortgage and taxes with my own money. It is small and I would say cheaply built. The subsidized houses in this area are larger and nicer than my affordable house.
Dave in Eugene
Yes, just like I said. They listed the obvious, giving our representatives and indication of what they had in mind, but left it wide open for them (and us) to decide what was "needful". Of course that kind of power will be abused, but it's not unconstitutional.
YOUR tax rates might be low, but not mine in North Arlington. Indeed, I challenge you to pay my bill.
Could it be that is only ploy being used by the liberals to gain even more Democrat voters in the next election?
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