Tag: eminent domain abuse

Posted on Jun 24, 2010 in News & Events

We have just learned that the New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) has released its opinion in the matter of Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corp., No. 125 (June 24, 2010). This is the case in which the New York State Urban Development Corporation (also known as the Empire State Development Corporation or ESDC) sought to condemn by eminent domain private properties in the West Harlem neighborhood surrounding Columbia University and give those seized properties to that private institution for an expansion project it wishes to undertake.

Posted on Jun 23, 2010 in News & Events

This morning, we received the following press release and link to the video featured above from the Institute for Justice reminding us that today marks the fifth anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v. New London.

Posted on May 13, 2010 in News & Events

Attorney Joe Waldo and the Central Radio Vice President Bob Wilson discuss on Fox & Friends how the neighboring university and housing authority have used a 12-year old study to determine that the property at which Central Radio, a defense contractor, currently operates its business is blighted and, therefore, should be redeveloped to spur economic development.

Posted on Apr 23, 2010 in News & Events

On Wednesday, April 21, one of the last remaining property owners opposing the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, Daniel Goldstein, reached a negotiated settlement with the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and project’s developer, Forest City Ratner, to leave his home.

Posted on Mar 31, 2010 in News & Events

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey ruled that a mural reading – “End Eminent Domain Abuse” (pictured above, image from KMOX News, St. Louis, MO) – which Jim Roos commissioned to be painted on the side of a brick apartment building owned by his housing agency is not art, violates the city’s sign code and must come down. The city’s sign ordinance requires signage to be no larger than 30 square feet in this zoning district. Mr. Roos’s anti-eminent domain mural is reported to be more than 360 square feet.

Posted on Mar 22, 2010 in News & Events

Robert Thomas, OCA Hawaii Member, will be covering the oral arguments in Klumpp v. Borough of Avalon, No. A-49-09 (certification granted Nov. 10, 2009) before the New Jersey Supreme Court today beginning at 11:00 AM (EDT). The New Jersey Supreme Court will review the decision of the Appellate Division which held that the government can assert inverse condemnation in order to acquire private property without compensation.

Posted on Mar 11, 2010 in News & Events

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place this afternoon for Developer Forest City Ratner’s controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. News sources have indicted that local and state officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Patterson, are expected to attend.

Posted on Mar 3, 2010 in News & Events

Unless it needs property to build a road, a subway line, a water-treatment plant, or a similar piece of truly public infrastructure—or unless a piece of land poses a clear and present danger to the public—the state should keep its hands off people’s property.

Posted on Feb 5, 2010 in News & Events

Owner’s Counsel Attorney Michael Rikon, on New York’s definition of blight, Eminent Domain Changes Seek to Limit State’s Power to Seize Property, by David King, Gotham Gazette February 4, 2010

Posted on Jan 21, 2010 in News & Events

Americans became more familiar with the government’s power and use of eminent domain following the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London, however, for New Yorkers eminent domain has become personal. The use of eminent domain in New York State, and particularly in metro New York, has been heavily discussed, analyzed and criticized in recent news, specifically with the debate surrounding the planned Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn and the December 3, 2009 appellate court decision barring the use of eminent domain for a proposed Columbia University expansion project in the West Harlem.