Posted on 07/11/2005 3:01:42 PM PDT by lowbridge
One day in January, Charlie Shennett, a 60-year-old disabled mechanic, went to Passaic City Hall to find out why he hadn't received a tax bill for the vacant lot he owned on Summer Street.
Shennett, who has lived in an apartment on Dayton Avenue in Passaic for decades, had dutifully paid taxes on the site of his childhood home since it burned down in 1987.
At the tax collector's office, Shennett was surprised to learn that he no longer owned the property. Without his knowledge, the city had taken it several months earlier as part of a redevelopment effort.
Later, he would discover the city set aside $14,730 as compensation for him, then turned around and sold the lot for $60,000 to developer Wayne Alston, a former city councilman who went to prison in the 1990s on corruption charges.
"I asked them, 'How can you do this to me? I paid my taxes,'" Shennett said. "They were like, 'We don't know, we don't know. It's the city.' Everybody went running."
-snip-
The practice has become increasingly common in New Jersey, with towns turning their old industrial, warehouse or residential sections into large-scale development projects. Towns argue they need the threat of condemnation -- long used to take property to build roads, schools and other things -- to prevent a few holdout property owners from spoiling large-scale redevelopment plans.
In Passaic, the city has used its powers to lean on the owners of dozens of properties deemed to be rundown to force improvements. Mayor Samuel Rivera trumpeted this sprucing up of the city in his successful campaign for re-election this spring.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I'm not buying it. Even with the new ruling, the constitutional requirement of compensation is still in effect.
If they can sell it to the developer for $60,000, then it is logical to assume the fair market value of the property is .....$60,000.
I'm buying it. The town set the price (14K) and there is no negotiation. Liberalism is showing it's ugly face once again.
$60,000 or more.
It frosts me to see some two-bit politician or govt. worker have the right to take someone's property.
I'm not buying it either. There is a notification process attached to Eminent Domain. It may be that he has failed to answer a "clean it up" order, received a "we cleaned it up" billing and failed to pay.
It's never too soon to buy ammo.
If mafia did it, it would be stealing, extortion, if government does it it's for "public good".
In most of New Jersey, mafia and government are one and the same.
No the jailed developer did and the city pocketed 60,000.
Ya know what....you're right and I know it from experience. I made an.....oh, no.......ASSumption.
"But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"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..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"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," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'"
How close to that kind of insane/pretzel logic are we now in Amerika, when a property is taken for 14k and turned around and sold for a discounted 60k and that is considered fair and legal?
I see notices in my local newspaper every week.
I know local governments have to publish these notices to do sheriff's auctions.
I wonder if it's the same case here?
you can say that again.
Blah Blah Bla Blah bla bla blahhh................
Participate,Vote the bastards out and quite yer damn bitching.....
Shennett never claimed the money, and instead sued the city. In May, Superior Court Judge Robert J. Passero, sitting in Paterson, agreed the price paid to Shennett seemed too low and appointed three neutral parties to reconsider compensation
But Shennet doesn't want anything they might come up with. He just wants his land back. Does not look like he's going to get it.
This is Jersey, right? Satisfaction is available for a price. These guys should be doing everything they can to get title back into the owner's hands.
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