Eminent Domain, New Brunswick Edition

NJN reports on yet another example of Eminent Domain abuse, this one occurring in New Brunswick.

The property owner asserts that the Rutgers Bookstore wanted for its own use the location presently occupied by New Jersey Books, a long-standing commercial establishment. New Brunswick, with visions of "redevelopment" sugar plums dancing in its head, proposes to seize the site and construct a mega-project. Once again, the government marches out the usual litany of benefits: increased ratables, higher tax revenues, aesthetic improvements, etc.

And, yet again, the humble "little guy" takes it in the teeth.

From the video, the site does not seem "blighted" in any real sense of the word. Instead, the city simply entertains a different vision for the site than does the property owner.

In discussing similar matters with one member of the fourth estate, he opined that one stubborn curmudgeon should not be permitted to stand athwart the tide of progress.

I respectfully, but vigorously, dissent.

The taking of property by a government may, under certain circumstances, be absolutely necessary. Highways, railroads, or similar improvements, which serve the public need, must go somewhere and, absent patent abuse of discretion, the determination of taking for same should be judicially respected. "Economic development" is patently different. Government needs a better rationale for taking one’s property than a desire to turn it over to more upscale neighbors.

This situation demonstrates the necessity for the enactment of something akin to ACR 256. Many of the other proposals presently pending don’t cover seizures of non-residential properties. ANY property owner should be free to thumb her nose at government attempts to compel a sale when the rationale is as flimsy as "redevelopment".