Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Eminent domain for its intended purpose?

From Sunnyside Post:

Jimmy Van Bramer has not given up on his plan to purchase a piece of Woodside land and convert it into a neighborhood park.

The city Parks Department, at the request of Van Bramer, has been trying to buy the property from its owner Vinny Oppedisano for the past year without success. The property, known as the Woodside Triangle, is located at the intersection of 59th and 60th streets and 34th Ave., and had been used as a de facto park by nearby residents for decades. However, Oppedisano cleared the site last year for construction purposes.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the city’s Parks Department had finally abandoned negotiating with him as the parties couldn’t agree on a price.

However, on Thursday, Van Bramer said he plans to bring the Parks Department and Oppedisano to the bargaining table one last time to see if something can be hammered out. “If it doesn’t come together, we will pursue all options.”

In a February interview, Van Bramer said that his office has had some preliminary discussions about getting the property via eminent domain and it is something he will continue to look into.


Taking property from a developer for public use is no longer considered to be a legitimate use of eminent domain. But taking property from a private entity to give to a developer - now we're talking. Good luck with this effort.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Van Bramer said that his office has had some preliminary discussions about getting the property via eminent domain and it is something he will continue to look into.

Maybe property owners everywhere will consider all of the methods available to make van Bramer change his mind on his own tactics to steal private property by the government.

Anonymous said...

Don't follow you. The owner was offered what the property was worth. He declined to sell it. The government doesn't just walk away from land it wants. The only option left is eminent domain. As this is for a public use, it would be a perfectly legitimate use of the power.

Anonymous said...

It's a public use!

The abuse of eminent domain is when you take private property and hand it over to a another private developer who wasn't able to reach a price with the private owner.

We've gotten so used to the abuse of eminent domain that we can't even recognize when it's being used for a public purpose.

Anonymous said...

Hey, isn't the architect same as Tommy Huang's project at Grand Avenue?

Anonymous said...

Didn't Van Bramer WRITE A LETTER to save the Steinway Mansion?

That was effective.