BLOG: Condemnation Law
Asbury Park Settlement Rejected
City’s Misconstrued Settlement to Property Owners’ Not Enforceable A New Jersey appeals court recently held that a settlement allegedly reached with a property owner in the Asbury Park oceanfront redevelopment area was not enforceable. Asbury Partners, as the master redeveloper of Asbury Park’s waterfront redevelopment area, had requested that the City condemn certain properties which it was unable... Read More
New Jersey Residents Voice Redevelopment Project Concerns
Residents of Hamilton, New Jersey, and Camden, New Jersey, voiced the same concern about redevelopment projects at their respective city council meetings this week: Promise that you will not take our properties through eminent domain. In Hamilton, where the redevelopment area in question encompasses 1,000 acres and 191 properties, council members have previously stated that... Read More
Should New Jersey's Eminent Domain Laws Be Bulldozed?
Rutgers Law Review article urges redevelopment reform A recent article in the Rutgers Law Review calls upon the New Jersey Legislature to adopt meaningful eminent domain and redevelopment law reform in the wake of the 2005 decision of the United States Supreme Court in Kelo v. New London. The article, entitled “Toward Successful Urban Revitalization: Why New... Read More
New Jersey Lawmakers Adopt Measure to Protect Developers
New “Time of Application” Law Prohibits Municipalities from Rezoning During Development Application Process New Jersey’s Legislature has revised the Municipal Land Use Law to remove the ability of municipalities to revise zoning codes in an effort to thwart development applications the municipality opposes but which otherwise comply with local zoning laws. Previously, it was not unusual... Read More
Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies Torpedos Case
A New Jersey appellate court recently affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a civil rights/due process claim by a Somerset County property owner who alleged that it was denied the right to develop its acreage in Millstone Borough over the course of several years where efforts to develop the property were stalled. Rezem Family Associates... Read More
Private Property Rights Protection Bill Introduced by Congress
H.R. 1433 (the “Private Property Rights Protection Act”) was recently introduced in the United States Congress by its bipartisan co-sponsors Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Maxine Waters (D-CA). If the proposed legislation passed as currently drafted, the new law would prohibit a State from using eminent domain for private development where a State had received federal... Read More
Schools Development Authority Considering Selling “Surplus” Eminent Domain Properties
The New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA), formerly the Schools Construction Corporation (SCC), recently answered questions from a joint legislative committee on what the SDA plans to do with the 160 properties purchased for projects that are no longer on the agency’s priority list. The properties are being evaluated by the SDA to determine if any... Read More
When a Private Beach is Really Not Private
The Texas Supreme Court has decided to reconsider its opinion in Severance v. Patterson, No. 09-0378 (Tx. Nov. 5, 2010), where that court was asked to decide “whether private beachfront properties on Galveston Island’s West Beach are impressed with a right of public use under Texas law without proof of an easement” when an avulsive event... Read More
McKirdy & Riskin Attorneys Selected as New Jersey Super Lawyers
Four of McKirdy & Riskin’s nine attorneys were selected as “Top 100″ Attorneys in New Jersey” for 2011 by Super Lawyers, as published by Thomson Reuters and in the April, 2011 edition of New Jersey Monthly Magazine. Edward McKirdy (selected to the Top 100 list for the fourth straight year) and Anthony Della Pelle (selected to... Read More
N.J. Supreme Court: Tenant Has Clout to Negotiate in Condemnation
Yesterday, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided Town of Kearny v. Discount City (A-76-09) and held that a condemnation action should have been dismissed for a failure to engage in bona fide negotiations with the only condemnee, a tenant occupying a building within a designated redevelopment area. Along the way to reversal, the Court reaffirmed its earlier... Read More
