{"id":794,"date":"2011-11-17T17:42:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T00:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=794"},"modified":"2011-11-17T17:42:33","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T00:42:33","slug":"eminent-domain-and-economic-development-a-laudatory-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=794","title":{"rendered":"Eminent Domain and Economic Development: An Admirable Colorado Example"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Speaking of Pruitt-Igoe<\/a> and \u201curban renewal\u201d, a version of the following appeared in yesterday\u2019s Brighton<\/em> Blade<\/em><\/a>, co-authored with Kyle Cascioli and Ron Throupe<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District<\/a> (MWRD) recently paid for 84 families and businesses to relocate in order to make way for the district\u2019s new $470 million dollar wastewater treatment plant in Brighton<\/a>, Colorado. \u00a0MWRD District manager Catherine Gerail was quoted as being very pleased that the city was able to help all parties move to new homes\u2014including a colony of feral cats that now occupies a new space at the Brighton Animal Shelter.\u00a0 We\u2019re pleased too!<\/p>\n

We were among those shocked when, in 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled in Kelo v. City of New London<\/a><\/em> (Connecticut) that municipalities have the authority to exercise their power of eminent domain and legally transfer property from one private owner to another in order to further economic development as a remedy for urban blight.\u00a0 New London used its authority to transfer 115 residential and commercial lots encompassing 90 waterfront acres adjacent to a Phizer Corporation research facility to a local developer.\u00a0 The city defined \u201cblight\u201d to include single family homes with one car garages\u2014which happened to describe just about all of the middle class bungalows and historic homes located in the 90 acres desired by the city.\u00a0 However, the developer was unable to finance the project and redevelopment of the site never occurred.\u00a0 Today the razed 90 acre site stands vacant, a symbol of failed redevelopment, eroded property rights, and municipal economic greed.<\/p>\n

By all accounts, the MWRD\u2019s negotiation with 84 families living at the Sylmar Manor Mobile Home Park and the Seven Sons Auto Salvage operation in Brighton appears to have been conducted with far more sensitivity than the one in New London.\u00a0 The MWRD\u2019s commitment to negotiate and settle with the displaced families and businesses is exemplary given their available options under Eminent Domain.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0We also believe that the MWRD\u2019s \u00a0decision to acquire these private lands \u201cat arms length\u201d for a legitimate public use and not for speculative economic development\u2014in a way that respected the citizens who would be adversely affected by the decision\u2014was the most humane approach.\u00a0 The resulting satisfaction on all sides seems to bear that out.<\/p>\n

The City of Aurora, Colorado\u2014whose council voted last summer, above citizen objections, to designate 125 vacant acres near the Denver International Airport as \u201cblighted<\/a>\u201d in order to clear the way for a private corporation to build a hotel and conference center\u2014could take a lesson from the Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation District.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Speaking of Pruitt-Igoe and \u201curban renewal\u201d, a version of the following appeared in yesterday\u2019s Brighton Blade, co-authored with Kyle Cascioli and Ron Throupe) The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District (MWRD) recently paid for 84 families and businesses to relocate in order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-eds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-cO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}