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April 2, 2008
Atlantic Yards May Prompt 9 To Revisit Eminent Domain
The NY Sun
By Joseph Goldstein
About a dozen holdout residents within the project's planned boundaries are petitioning the high court to forbid their eviction. If the residents win, the development, which entails 16 towers of residential and office space and a basketball arena, would be halted. One resident, Daniel Goldstein, said his two-bedroom apartment is near center court of the proposed arena.
NoLandGrab: Correction, a win in the US Supreme Court would be a blow against the project but it wouldn't technically stop it. Instead, it would reverse the dismissal and allow the residents' case to proceed in court.
If four justices agree to hear the appeal, it would be the court's first to test the power of government to seize property through eminent domain since a landmark decision in 2005 in the case of Kelo v. the City of New London.
...
Mr. Brinkerhoff's petition to the Supreme Court focuses on a more modest aim than convincing the court to scrap its opinion in Kelo just three years after issuing it. The residents are asking the court to give them a chance to prove their allegation that the primary motivation behind the Atlantic Yards project isn't a desire to benefit the public. Instead, the plaintiffs claim the project is mainly a conspiracy to benefit the interests of the project's developer, Bruce Ratner, and his company, Forest City Ratner.
...
The question the Supreme Court would address is what opportunity courts should provide property owners to prove that their land is being seized to further a private interest. Should courts dismiss the suits out of hand, or allow property owners to take depositions of public officials and private developers and examine their e-mail messages, as the Brooklyn plaintiffs are seeking?
Additional:
The NY Post ran the story off the Associated Press (AP) Wire.
Posted by lumi at April 2, 2008 5:27 AM