Posted on 09/26/2024 9:14:30 PM PDT by algore
A skilled carpenter's Georgia home was unexpectedly demolished without any notice or compensation from the county.
Eric Arnold, from New Jersey, decided to pack up and move to Georgia to live where his mother grew up. He took on multiple home renovation projects, including the property in Macon-Bibb County.
He bought the house in 2022 for $15,000 and started improving it to make it a future home for his children and grandchildren.
But his plans were shattered when a neighbor called Arnold to ask about a dumpster that had been place on his property.
After two months of confusion and mixed signals from country officials, Arnold's home was demolished on November 15, 2023.
He filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging that his home's destruction was unconstitutional.
He told the Institute for Justice: 'When you knock something down like that and destroy families, he just destroyed my whole generation. Now I have nothing.
When I pulled up and saw the house demolished, I was devastated. My heart started racing, I was tearing up, I started sweating.'
Macon-Bibb county has a blight problem, but instead of working with community residents toward a solution or communicating their plans, they simply resort to knocking down houses.
Blighted properties are those seen as a disruption to the surrounding area, according to the Center for Community Progress.
Arnold argued that he was in the process of fixing the home. He had completely transformed it from its original state.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”
“But the plans were on display…”
“Ah! And how many members of the public are in the habit of casually dropping around the local planning office on an evening?”
“Er – ah.”
“It’s not exactly a noted social venue is it? And even if you had popped in on the off chance that some raving bureaucrat wanted to knock your house down, the plans weren’t immediately obvious to the eye, were they?”
“That depends where you were looking.”
“I eventually had to go down to the cellar!”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
"Yes, yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard". Have you considered going into advertising?"
Georgia is changing into something ugly.
And who do we have to thank for this?! Hippie commies transplanted from the coasts.
This man was renovating his home. How hard would it have been to talk to him before commiting such a heinous act?
Blighted properties are those seen as a disruption to the surrounding area, according to the Center for Community Progress.
Nope. Blighted properties are seen as a way to develop special taxing districts that are passed out like favors to the friends of local politicians. New development replaces the blighted ones but the tax rate is much lower than it would usually be for the type of occupancy. There are often conditions such as a certain percentage of local employment for workers and set aside for so called affordable units.
There is a code called the “Unsafe building and abatement code” (The name may have changed) but there are definite steps that have to take place before an unsafe building is either torn down or brought to code. Throughout the process an owner has legal rights and avenues of appeal.
Someone got very greedy and figured the owner would not have the means to fight them.
I hope Arnold sues the socks off the county.
I want to see the demographics of the parties involved. Being a Georgian government bureaucracy....well. I just wonder.
That has changed in the past 30 years I think. First slowly and now more quickly.
Actually, New Yorker transplants are far more likely to vote Republican than the locals.
The owner is a black man.
End of article...”In the lawsuit, it is also mentioned that Assistant County Attorney Frank Howard told Arnold he could go to jail for renovating his home without a license and proceeded offensively to ask, ‘What are you going to do — make Macon Black again?’
-PJ
I almost doubt the comment was made. Too much lawsuit-fuel.
Unexpectedly? Was the house jabbed?
“WITHOUT WARNING”?
Sorry, but unless there was a paperwork mistake... if it was destroyed because if was declared condemned and a blight, many many many letters were mailed to the owner of the property before the demolition.
There have indeed been cases where the demolition crew shows up at the wrong address and destroys the wrong property without notice, but I highly doubt that this person was not contacted MULTIPLE times via mail regarding the legal process going on against the property.
IT is possible he never received the mailings if his legal address was that of the home he was not occupying, but it was not from lack of the courts or county attempting to contact him.
I feel for this gentleman I do, but the spin of the just did this and they didn’t tell me, is just not believable.
As someone who has rehabbed homes in blighted areas, I call complete BS on this entire article.
At least the claims that he was not informed.
See post 15
“And who do we have to thank for this?! Hippie commies transplanted from the coasts.”
Amen. I call them coastal parasites.
After the dumpster showed up he went down to the city and protested showing that he was the owner and in the process of renovating it. As he understood it the city agreed to stop the demolition. The dumpster was removed. And then a couple of weeks later they proceeded to show up to do the demolition and did.
“WITHOUT WARNING”
Had a property line fence as well as some trees demolished recently “WITHOUT WARNING”. A subcontractor showed up one day and by the time I got back home, the deeds had been done. Still pissed about that. Litigation may be in the very near future if this is not resolved in a timely manner and to my complete satisfaction.
Why is this not a fifth amendment violation?
It is a State case, not a Federal case. The claims are made under the 14th Amendment.
Excerpts from the COMPLAINT:
17. Eric’s federal constitutional claims arise under the Fourteenth and First Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.103. Curiously, the residential remodel permit Eric purchased lists “Monica Flagg” as the owner of 1151 Sunnydale Drive. Monica Flagg owned 1151 Sunnydale Drive from 1998 to 2021 before gifting it to Wallace Adside on December 15, 2021. Wallace Adside sold 1151 Sunnydale 20 Drive to Eric in February 2022. In his rush to get the permit and share copies, Eric did not immediately notice the error.
131. The only notice that the County ever sent to any property owner concerning 1151 Sunnydale Drive was a “nuisance per se letter” sent to Monica Flagg in October 2021. As noted above, Flagg gifted 1151 Sunnydale Drive to Wallace Adside on December 15, 2021.
CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS
CLAIM I
Failing to Provide Notice or a Hearing Before Demolishing Real Property Violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article I, Section I, Paragraph I of the Georgia ConstitutionCLAIM II
Demolishing Real Property Using Mayoral Nuisance Per Se Abatement Arbitrarily Violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article I, Section I, Paragraph I of the Georgia ConstitutionCLAIM III
Retaliating Against a Property Owner for Petitioning the Government Violates the First Amendment and Article I, Section I, Paragraph IX of the Georgia ConstitutionCLAIM IV
The County’s Nuisance Per Se Abatement Scheme Usurps Judicial Power in Violation of Article VI, Section I, Paragraph I of the Georgia Constitution
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