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March 23, 2007
Cincinnati land seizure overturned
As Ratner is poised to begin some serious demolition in the footprint of Atlantic Yards, Brooklynites are learning about Norwood, OH, a town that demolished an entire neighborhood, except for three houses, to make way for a mall. After the Ohio State Supreme Court declared the action unconstitutional, the ravaged neighborhood remains a wasteland.
The hope is that our public officials will learn from Norwood. In Cincinnati, they are still learning from Norwood. This time, it concerns a specious "blight study," something else that will sound familiar to Brooklynites.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
By Steve Kemme
Using the Norwood eminent-domain case as a model, a state appeals court Friday nullified Cincinnati's seizure of two parcels on Calhoun Street in Clifton Heights and declared the city's eminent-domain ordinance unconstitutional.
The ruling reverses a lower-court decision that upheld the city's right to take the properties.
The city and a developer used a blight study to take dozens of properties as part of a $270 million redevelopment plan along Calhoun Street.
All of the property owners in the redevelopment district except the owners of a former Hardee's and Arby's eventually agreed to sell to the developer, the Clifton Heights Community Urban Redevelopment Corp.
The Ohio First District Court of Appeals said in its decision Friday that many factors that Cincinnati used for designating properties "blighted" or "deteriorating" were struck down in the Ohio Supreme Court's Norwood decision."
Posted by lumi at March 23, 2007 5:43 AM