Real Estate & Property Law

Town Seeks Reconsideration Ruling Which Bars a Taking

By Alan Ackerman

Rocky Hill has it wrong. The Court followed a statute which requires that a good faith written offer in the negotiation process be followed. Why a city would not follow the approach in an appropriate fashion in beyond recognition. Every jurisdiction in the country dealing with a negotiation process requires a negotiation of some sort. State legislators have made a policy decision that a negotiation prior to condemnation is required. Rocky Hill forgot that the right of a community to condemn is premised upon following the eminent domain procedure established by the State.

Hartford Courant

Judge Joseph M. Shortall issued an injunction Dec. 2 barring the town from continuing with the proceedings, which were initiated in October 2009 as a prelude to acquiring the long-blighted property through eminent domain.

Shortall had concluded that in the weeks and months leading up to seeking condemnation, the town failed to exhaust all reasonable efforts to negotiate a fair price with the property owners, Riverfront Future Partners.

Borea argued that Riverfront Future Partners, by first threatening to file and then by filing its own lawsuit, "evinced a refusal to accept any price the town might offer and a refusal to engage in dialog consistent with its position since June of 2008, when it maintained silence in the face of an offer of $3 million and mediation."

 

 

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).