Breaking SAC News: We've been contacted by folks in Delaware about a budding eminent domain case courtesy of the City of Wilmington. Maybe the "Christina Landing development"? We have turned to the Institute For Justice/Castle Coalition for their input (www.IJ.org). We will be back soon, but here's what we've found out thus far:

'Pioneers' put out by Riverfront renaissance
Small-business owners say they deserve better than eminent domain
By ADAM TAYLOR, The News Journal

Posted Tuesday, July 17, 2007

WILMINGTON -- A new plan by the city to use eminent domain to condemn as many as 62 properties in southern Wilmington has some of the owners feeling that they are being kicked out of the renaissance taking place in that part of the city.

City officials have a new vision for the part of southern Wilmington near the $200 million Christina Landing development. But their vision of a neighborhood full of town homes, shops and office buildings does not include some of the area's existing businesses, such as Osborne's Auto Service, located across the street from the upscale residential complex.

Owner Ed Osborne said he feels kicked to the curb.

"I was down here when no one else wanted to be," he said. "I keep a clean business, and called the police when pimps and prostitutes were here. I feel as though I was part of the small group of pioneers who stayed to keep this part of the city from becoming totally uninhabitable."

Mayor James M. Baker said the property owners' concerns are "nonsense." The city has to grow, he said, and southern Wilmington is one of the undeveloped places where that can happen.

"This doesn't have anything to do with being mean and arrogant, and smacking people in the belly," he said. "This is the process we need to have in place to begin fair negotiations with them."

If property owners don't sell voluntarily, the city could seek to condemn them.

and

Our Readers' Views
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Misuse of eminent domain is what the Communists do

Perhaps the city thinks that taking the small Riverfront business properties at below-market prices and turning them over to a deep-pocketed developer will help attract educated professionals and modern corporations to the city's center.

I am an educated professional working for a modern company, and I think it is plain wrong. When the government takes somebody's property and turns into a library, that is a public use. But when the government takes somebody's property and turns to a richer buyer at a multiple of the price, that is not fair and not American.

I grew up in a Communist country and I came to the United States exactly because this sort of thing was not supposed to happen here. I moved to Wilmington in 1998 after finishing my master's at a prestigious graduate school, turning down jobs in New York and Washington, D.C., to the ridicule of my classmates.

I came to love our little Delaware and city, because of its friendly small-town ways, and guys like the Osbornes who fix my car just minutes away from my office. Sure, the city may get more taxes if they turn Osborne's Auto Repair into a condo tower in an unfair arm-twisting deal. But the cities that do have seen their reputation suffer. Is this what Wilmington wants?

Sergei Korol, Wilmington

Property owners still face eminent domain threat here

Since the United States Supreme Court ruled so outrageously in the Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., case, we have become more vulnerable to the taking of property by the state.

Delaware trumpeted the laws it passed last year as a local cure for the problem but all they actually did was make it easier for the state and municipalities to take property by laying out exactly what they needed to do. The Joint Resolution the Legislature passed created a panel to review the status quo and propose legislation. The panel never met, was not staffed and did not file a report.

Now comes the City of Wilmington in all its might to eradicate the rights of 62 property owners in the Christina Riverfront District to profit from the renaissance of the area when the price is right. The developers are acting most cynically by having the city steal these properties for them.

Delaware should pass the sample legislation provided by the Castle Coalition. It is quite simple really. Define public use, lay out how the takings should proceed and place the onus on the state to prove its case. The Castle Coalition is aware of our situation here in Delaware and provides all sorts of good information on its Web site, including resources on how to fight the powers that be. For more information, see www.castle coalition.org.

Alan Coffey, Newark