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January 24, 2006
Camden trial to test eminent domain
A judge will decide whether the city's Cramer Hill section - target of a $1.2 billion project - is truly blighted.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
by Dwight Ott
A big "blight" case is getting underway in Camden, NJ. At stake for about 200 residents and four large businesses, is whether or not the city can declare their neighborhood "blighted," in order to facillitate the city's plan to move "as many as 1,200 households to make way for 6,000 new houses, 500,000 square feet of retail space, a marina, and a golf course."
NoLandGrab: "Blight clearance" was declared a "public benefit" (an expansion of "public use"), to save the people in slums from their own conditions. At least, that was the justification provided by the old liberal school of thought.
Nowadays, "blight" clearance is primarily being used to solve the difficult problem of amassing enough property for large-scale development in urban environments.
No one has suggested that courts revert back to a position representing a "strict constuctionist" definition of "blight clearance" as a tool for social engineering, a paradigm that has long since been abandoned.
Since the original purpose of "blight clearance" has been preverted, its definition, or even justification, could to be re-examined by the courts.
Posted by lumi at January 24, 2006 2:43 PM