Kelo Report, Part 3

[TackleTheWorld]

I bet he would approve of poison gas, ?or maybe cluster bombs. ?Ooh finally a test ground for the neutron bomb.
No too expensive. ?
The most economical final solution would be the demolition of the buildings with the anti-public-good scoundrels still inside.

I encoruage him to adopt the motto: "Rights Smights, the government needs more money".

[AlanM]

Dear Mr. O'Donnell,
?Have you ever stop and considered that Property Rights might be important? Imagine for a moment if this was your property being taken without just compensation. What if it were your parents? The Right to own Property is basic to human freedom. Taking property is taking away freedom. The Founding Fathers would not be happy with New London's confiscation of private property.

Alan Milner
www.shortydawkins.com

[AlanM]

I kept it short and civil. If I hadn't I would have called him an asshole. 

[Russell Kanning]

Newsflash: Lauren is alive and well ...... I saw her with my own eyes today.

[TackleTheWorld]

Hi, Lauren here, resident of the embattled Ft. Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Connecticut.  Day 152.

Status of utilities:
electricity     On
gas             On
water           On
phone           On
cable           On

There are rumours that some of the property owners may sell out soon.
Susette Kelo ,angry about our latest legal defeats, emphatically says she's staying.

Susette says she's "... not paying rent for the privilege of living in her own house".

Could you say you owned something if you could only sell it to one "buyer?
No. 
Could you say it was a free and voluntary transfer if this "buyer" threatened and intimidated you?
No.
Could you say you sold willingly if this "buyer" has scared away your neighbors and knocked down their houses?
No.
Could you call it coersion if this "buyer" knocked neighboring houses into yours?
Yes.

Seems to me no one validly sold their land to the NLDC.  It was coersed away from the rightful owners.
I don't recognise the city's deed to this land.

I'm not going anywhere either.

[TackleTheWorld]

latest legal news:

http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=5F95531E-70E6-45B0-BB10-6A810275F7A8
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=60AF3839-C183-4A85-A488-E942550BF669

The newspaper article makes it sound like we don't pay utilities, but I pay electricity and gas every month.

[TackleTheWorld]

 
Featured in Region

Fort Trumbull Plan Gains Momentum
NL mayor praises progress, writes governor about legal hurdle; groundbreaking nears

 
By RICHARD RAINEY
Day Staff Writer, New London
Published on 1/14/2006

New London ?? Within the last few days, the city, the New London Development Corp. and developer Corcoran Jennison have taken steps to advance the controversial Fort Trumbull development plan. They hope to break ground within the next month.

?I think that it's a huge improvement that things are moving forward,? Mayor Beth Sabilia said Friday.

Last month, Boston-based Corcoran Jennison signed a ground lease for a section of the 90-acre project site. On Wednesday, the developer received approval to demolish an annex of an office building on the property. On Thursday, city councilors got their first look at the latest development agreement between the developer and NLDC. And on Friday, Sabilia sent a letter to Gov. M. Jodi Rell in an effort to clear up a remaining legal hurdle.

Sabilia, in the letter, asked the governor to direct Robert Albright, a state-appointed mediator, to determine who should pay for rent and utilities at several homes taken by the city through eminent domain. A lengthy legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court left the property owners in financial limbo, unsure whether they could continue to collect rent from tenants of properties they technically no longer own.

In a Sept. 16 meeting, the governor's legal counsel, Kevin J. Rasch, told NLDC officials that they were entitled to begin collecting rent from the tenants.

In addition, Sabilia wrote, it's still unclear whether the former property owners owe the city for sewer and utility bills that went unpaid during the litigation over eminent domain.
Meanwhile, city Law Director Thomas Londregan made available Thursday 10 copies of the more than 150 pages of the amended development agreement. He had received an original copy Jan. 6 but would not release the information until he could make copies for councilors, the media and the public.

A copy of the agreement will be available at the Public Library of New London, Londregan said this week.

The hefty document is the culmination of more than two months of intense negotiations between the NLDC and Corcoran Jennison. The removal of a ?cross-default? provision became the main feature of the new agreement, said Marty Jones, president of Corcoran Jennison. That provision had called for the phases of the plan to be completed in a specific order, ensuring the developer could not back out of any aspect of the project.

Under the new agreement, Corcoran Jennison can start construction on any or all of the project's three phases at the same time. The phases call for a luxury hotel, a parking garage, several residential and commercial buildings, a park called a maritime green, and a walkway along the Thames River.

?At the end of the day, everyone just found a better way to go forward,? said Glenn T. Carberry, an attorney who negotiated the deal for Corcoran Jennison.

On the same day the agreement was reached, Dec. 21, Corcoran Jennison signed a ground lease for so-called Parcel 3A, effectively buying the property and a former Navy office building there.

?Basically, the first piece of land (in the development plan) is (now) privately owned and taxable,? Carberry said.

Under the terms of the agreement, the developer has 30 days to begin renovating the office building. The city's Building Department received notice Wednesday that Corcoran Jennison could begin demolishing the annex that juts out from the structure over East Street.

While the agreement establishes various timelines for construction, much of the plan hinges on ongoing talks to bring a national Coast Guard museum to Fort Trumbull. The recently formed Museum Association met with Adm. Thomas H. Collins, commandant of the Coast Guard, last week.

Collins could not be reached for comment Friday, but NLDC and association officials said this week that discussions have been promising.

Sabilia, in a telephone interview Friday, praised several key figures involved in the talks, including Deputy Commissioner Ronald Angelo of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, lawyers, members of the NLDC and its president, Michael Joplin.


? The Day Publishing Co., 2006
For home delivery, please call 1-866-846-9099

[Russell Kanning]

Thanks for the info Lauren.
At what kind of prices do you think they will settle at? Are they within reason or horrible?
The nldc could wrap this up if they just offered enough money. Didn't Susette just want $140,000 back a few years ago? If they gave her $300,000 she might be happy, but she doesn't have to take it. It is her house.

[Lex]

Thanks for the info Lauren.
At what kind of prices do you think they will settle at? Are they within reason or horrible?
The nldc could wrap this up if they just offered enough money. Didn't Susette just want $140,000 back a few years ago? If they gave her $300,000 she might be happy, but she doesn't have to take it. It is her house.

She can buy a nice house in NH for that 

[Dave Ridley]

are there some more numbers of people we can call and bug?  i've been leaving msgs at  the NLDC itself, never to the same person twice .    but i'd like to have a wider list of people to call.

[TackleTheWorld]

Here's a start:

New London CT Town Hall Numbers:
(860)447-5200 (City Hall)
(860)447-5204 (City Clerk)
(860)447-5201 (City Manager)

[TackleTheWorld]

http://www.ij.org/editorial/bbt-wont-fund-ED.html


BB&T Respects Property Rights,
Won?t Fund Eminent Domain Abuse
WEB RELEASE: January 25, 2006
Media Contact:
John Kramer or Lisa Knepper
(703) 682-9320
[Property Rights]

Arlington, Va.?BB&T, the nation?s ninth largest financial holdings company with $109.2 billion in assets, announced today that it ?will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.?

In a press release issued today by the bank, BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison, said, ?The idea that a citizen?s property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it?s just plain wrong.  One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own.  As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won?t help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.?

?BB&T?s principled stand sets an example that should inspire other lenders and should become the new industry standard,? said Institute for Justice President and General Counsel Chip Mellor.  The Institute for Justice litigated the Kelo case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the taking of private property for someone else?s private use in the guise of ?economic development.?  Mellor said, ?You can and should accomplish economic development through private negotiation, not the use of government force through eminent domain.  As far as we?re concerned, BB&T now stands for Best Bank in Town.?

The U.S. Congress is now considering bipartisan legislation that would federally de-fund eminent domain for private use.  Although the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation that would block any federal funds going to private development projects on land taken through eminent domain, the Senate has yet to vote on companion legislation.  Last week, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), however, commented on an eminent domain case that was argued before the Ohio Supreme Court.  The case involves Carl and Joy Gamble, homeowners from Norwood, Ohio, who could lose their home through eminent domain for a privately owned mall and high-end apartments.  Frist wrote in an op-ed published by the Cincinnati Enquirer, ?I have some pretty clear thoughts about the [Norwood] case:  The Gambles should keep their home and the developer should either build around it or cancel the development plans altogether. . . .   Quite simply, no family should ever risk losing its home because a government wants to help a private developer.?

Scott Bullock, an IJ senior attorney who argued the Kelo case, said, ?Eminent domain abuse is wrong and unconstitutional.  BB&T has stepped up and recognized its corporate responsibility to not be a part of this shameful abuse of individual rights.?

Dana Berliner, an IJ senior attorney who argued the Gambles? case before the Ohio Supreme Court, said, ?Throughout the country, banks have been silent partners in the unholy alliance between local governments and private developers.  Banks finance developers and cities that use eminent domain to take someone?s home or business and turn the land into new stores, condos, and office space.  Others will hopefully follow BB&T?s courageous example.?




Institute for Justice 901 N. Glebe Road Suite 900 Arlington, VA 22203
Tel 703.682.9320 Fax 703.682.9321
Copyright ? 1991-2006

[KBCraig]

http://www.ij.org/editorial/bbt-wont-fund-ED.html

Arlington, Va.?BB&T, the nation?s ninth largest financial holdings company with $109.2 billion in assets, announced today that it ?will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.?

In a press release issued today by the bank, BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison, said, ?The idea that a citizen?s property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it?s just plain wrong.  One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own.  As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won?t help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.?

Wow!

[Lex]

Capitalism in action! 

[Dave Ridley]

Here's a start:

New London CT Town Hall Numbers:
(860)447-5200 (City Hall)
(860)447-5204 (City Clerk)
(860)447-5201 (City Manager)

didn't have any luck when i tried to call them today looking for voice mail after hours.  i guess one has to call during biz hours even to leave a msg...