AG eyes eminent
domain
Official supports
tighter controls on property seizures
By ANGELA DELLI SANTI,
AP from thnt.com Online, August 7, 2007
TRENTON — New Jersey's top
law-enforcement official wants tighter controls over local governments' ability
to seize private property for redevelopment, saying current so-called
eminent-domain laws are ripe for corruption.
In an hour-long interview with Associated Press reporters and editors, Attorney
General Anne Milgram said she supports efforts by Public Advocate Ronald Chen to
rein in abuses of what he calls overbroad land-seizure laws.
"Eminent domain/redevelopment has the potential for a great amount of abuse in
the public integrity area," Milgram said.
Milgram called on the Legislature "to change the way business is done," by
closing loopholes that allow private property to be taken from residents for
public projects like schools or to spur economic redevelopment.
She said the need for more oversight is obvious after two reports by Chen
criticizing eminent domain.
The most recent report, in May, looked at several court cases involving misuses
of the law and concluded that the system was rife with abuse. In a report
the previous year, Chen called for greater protections for property owners and
tenants.
In both cases, he urged the Legislature to use its legal muscle to stop
land-taking abuses.
The May report cited abuses — documented in court cases — ranging from
unreasonable property seizures to underpayments to property owners.
For example, a Passaic property owner lost a lot without ever knowing the town
had condemned and sold the land to another private party. He found out
about the sale only when he tried to pay his property taxes. In Long
Branch, the city offered one homeowner about $180,000 for a five-bedroom,
beachfront home that had been condemned. A jury later awarded the
homeowner $500,000 for the home.
The Assembly passed eminent-domain reform legislation a year ago. The
measure, which has the support of the New Jersey League of Municipalities and
Gov. Jon S. Corzine, remains stalled in the Senate.
However, the state Supreme Court provided some relief to property owners when it
ruled in June that local governments cannot seize land against the owner's
wishes merely because the property is underused.
In that unanimous decision, which Milgram hailed as a welcome reform, the court
ruled that in order for the government to take over land for redevelopment, the
property must be deemed "blighted" — beyond a designation of "not fully
productive."
Milgram, 36, is New Jersey's third attorney general in 18 months, succeeding
Stuart Rabner, who was promoted to chief justice of the state Supreme Court
after nine months on the job, and Zulima Farber, who forced to resign after
seven months when an ethics panel found she had interfered in a traffic stop
involving her boyfriend.
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