We can’t trust politicians with deeds to our homes
Sometimes, you read something where somebody is quoted saying something so idiotic you just have to throw up your hands and ask, “What the h-e-double hockey sticks are they thinking?”
That was the reaction I had to a piece in The Star-Ledger last week after New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald Chen released his second damning report on this state’s statutes on eminent domain. Basically, he says those laws are so weak and full of loopholes that the only private property marginally safe from government confiscation around here is what you can bury in the woods under the light of a full moon. And it’s only safe then if you do like a pirate and kill all the witnesses.
Critics of his report quoted in the article, however, are apparently smoking something illegal in most of the continental United States. Their logic simply beggars belief.
As Greater Media Newspapers reported in its ongoing coverage by reporter Christine Varno in the Atlanticville, Chen’s report documented widespread abuses of eminent domain law for private redevelopment in this state, including the oceanfront redevelopment project in Long Branch.
That project – which seeks to take a number of private homes in the area of Marine Terrace, Ocean Terrace and Seaview Avenue (MTOTSA) so that developers can build high-priced condominiums – is such a blatant land grab by local officials and developers that it has turned Long Branch into the national poster child for eminent domain abuse.
In the last year or so, stories about the plight of those homeowners have gone national, even ending up on the front page of Parade magazine and drawing the commitment of the respected Institute of Justice to advocate in court on behalf of the beleaguered victims.
Chen began stoking those fires last May when he released his first 45-page report on eminent domain. While he did not single out specific communities for criticism in that report, it was a general indictment of the state of New Jersey’s eminent domain law. The current laws are so inadequate that virtually nobody’s private property is safe from being lost to eminent domain, the report claimed.
In his first report, Chen noted that not even Drumthwacket, the governor’s official residence, is safe from a corporation that wants to build a Motel Six or an upscale condo development on the site. All a potential developer would have to do is convince the local government that a motel is a more productive use of the property than having a governor’s mansion there.
In the months that followed the release of that report, a flurry of proposed laws aimed at preventing eminent domain abuse was introduced in the state Assembly, including three sponsored or co-sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Panter (D-Monmouth and Mercer). Among other things, those laws would prevent the use of condemnation to acquire residential property under redevelopment laws, place a 24-month moratorium on certain uses of eminent domain while the Legislature considers the problem, and require the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to approve a municipality’s determination that an area is in need of redevelopment.
Another bill to prevent eminent domain abuse – A-3257, introduced by Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) – passed the Assembly but has been stalled in the Senate. That bill is expected to pass the Senate in the lame duck voting session this fall.
Chen’s second report, released last week, should certainly help move that ball down the field. In his latest report, Chen documented widespread abuses by municipalities taking property by eminent domain for private redevelopment projects. In this report, he named names and cited specific instances of abuse. And high on his list of offenders – the municipal government in Long Branch.
According to the report, that government – under Mayor Adam Schneider – is guilty of multiple abuses that include, but are not limited to, improperly designating the redevelopment area as blighted, and failing to communicate to property owners in plain language that they needed to appear at a meeting on the issue and object, or risk losing their homes.
Naturally, the report and Chen’s support of A-3257 was not without its critics. The state League of Municipalities says the bill would “chill” the use of eminent domain, which it says towns need in order to transform undesirable sites into developments that pay higher taxes. And Edward McManimon III, the attorney whose firm has represented many of the towns using eminent domain, told The Star-Ledger that Chen’s report ignored the fact that many towns have acted appropriately.
“With a broad brush this indicts the process as if it were cavalier,” he told The Star-Ledger. “It doesn’t show enough respect for what the local officials go through. They make those decisions and they’re not easy and they’re held accountable.”
You just have to shake your head at statements like that, because the holes in the logic are big enough to ride a camel through.
Even though this is a law that has been abused and caused a lot of grief, he argues, we should keep it on the books because once in a while it comes in handy. Trust the government, he argues, to use its power wisely.
Well, counselor, that’s what got us in this mess to start with. We trusted municipal governments to use their powers of eminent domain wisely, and lots of them abused that power. It just doesn’t matter that a few have done it right.
Not every drunken driver kills an innocent wayfarer, either. Sometimes, the drunk gets home in one piece, and having a car at his or her disposal at closing time was pretty convenient since it saved cab fare. Still, we generally frown on the practice and have passed laws in hopes of preventing senseless pain and suffering, laws to punish the abusers.
It’s time to give the same protection to owners of private property in New Jersey, where too many residents – like the MTOTSA homeowners in Long Branch – are suffering at the hands of local government. We can’t trust drunks on the road, and experience has proved we can’t trust the politicians with our homes.
Gregory Bean is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. He can be reached at gbean@gmnews.com.