Discuss Detroit » Archives - July 2007 » Detroit pushed to pay $30M RiverWalk lands judgment « Previous Next »
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Leland_palmer
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Username: Leland_palmer

Post Number: 372
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Friday, September 14, 2007 - 7:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"City officials have balked at paying a $25 million and growing judgment to compensate property owners forced to give up land for the RiverWalk, and on Monday lawyers will ask Wayne County Judge Michael F. Sapala to hold the city in contempt for not paying its debt."

http://detroitnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20070914/U PDATE/709140431/1003
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Leland_palmer
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Username: Leland_palmer

Post Number: 374
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 9:04 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Repackaged here


http://detroitnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/M ETRO/709150366/1003

Also in the Freep

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll /article?AID=/20070914/NEWS01/ 70914027/1003/NEWS
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Sstashmoo
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Username: Sstashmoo

Post Number: 404
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 9:21 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh surprise.
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Charlottepaul
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Username: Charlottepaul

Post Number: 1690
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 1:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

How was the value of the East riverfront land ever determined to be $25 million?
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Pjazz
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Username: Pjazz

Post Number: 85
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 5:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You know I can understand having a piece of property that you own that is taken away from you unlawfully being bad, but it's hard to for me to feel bad for someone who sits on undeveloped land thats an eye sore just waiting for someone else to come up with a useful use for the land so they can cash in.
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Thejesus
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Username: Thejesus

Post Number: 2122
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 5:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^you act like cashing in is a given...there's always a risk involved...if a potential use for the land never develops, then the value can end up being less than what they paid for it...if they guessed right, then they should get the full value of their asset
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Lefty2
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Username: Lefty2

Post Number: 127
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 5:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Now.. Seven years later....
I don't see how the city cannot get out of paying.

Yikes! ---V
Jerome Pesick, who represents the property owners.
If the city doesn't pay, Pesick said, one option is to have a tax levy added to residents' tax bills to cover the debt. That's not his first choice.
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Charlottepaul
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Username: Charlottepaul

Post Number: 1698
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 7:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"but it's hard to for me to feel bad for someone who sits on undeveloped land thats an eye sore just waiting for someone else to come up with a useful use for the land so they can cash in."

EXACTLY! Some stupid ass jury is milking Detroit for actually doing something good. Whatever happened to eminent domain for the good of the public? Go figure if there is one place where it can't follow the normal practice, Detroit would be it.
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3rdworldcity
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Username: 3rdworldcity

Post Number: 909
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007 - 10:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Eminent domain abuse in MI has been eliminated by case law and an amendment to the Constitution. By eminent domain abuse I mean the process of taking ones property, not for a road, a police station or another actual public use, but to take it and then convey it to another private owner. That's what the city tried to do to acquire land for the casinos.

At the time of the taking of the Blain parcel, MI's "quick take" statute was in effect. The city came in, told the landowner what it thought the property was worth, and paid that amount at the time title passed. The landowner, if it thought the property was worth more than what the city paid, had to file a lawsuit to recover what it believed the property was worth. That's what happened in this case. The landowner presented evidence to the jury, by it appraiser's, as to the land's worth. The city defended its original purchase price. As happens most of the time in these cases the city lost big-time. Juries aren't stupid.

The city appealed the jury verdict in this case and lost again. It will have to pay the balance of the purchase price plus interest. There is no question that the judgment will be paid.

The biggest city fiasco was the undervaluing of some warehouses demolished to make was for the Chrysler Jefferson plant. That cost the city $50 million dollars, plus lawyer Alan Ackerman's legal fees of almost $15 million. Thanks, CAY.

Jerry Pesick is an expert in condemnation law. He is 100 times smarter that the city's lawyers, who actually aren't that dumb but march to the Administration's orders.

The owners in this case did not sit on undeveloped land waiting for someone to come along as a couple of you suggested. I know the owners would have negotiated a fair price with the casinos had they been given the opportunity but the city stepped in and tried to steal the land instead.

The whole deal was a fiasco. The city tried to steal all that land by condemnation, "purchased" much of it as it did the Blain parcel, and then the condemnation case was thrown out because the city screwed up and did not follow the statutory process. What a joke. Dennis Archer was the stupidist person ever to be Mayor of Detroit.

Charlottepaul, the city was not trying to "do something good for the public." It tried to steal a lot of land from a lot of people and got tagged. Deservedly.
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Digitalvision
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Username: Digitalvision

Post Number: 382
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 - 12:37 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Eminent domain has been used in the past of the history of Detroit... with evil results.

The freeways where they are today were cut through majority black areas, and when they cut through white areas, the city paid to relocate the houses and white businesses that were affected, and through black ones, well, you were SOL, even if you were one of the lucky few black homeowners/business owners. (Yes, I know, it was federal dollars, but at the time, the local municipality called the shots on how it was spent).

Be it paradise valley, or the west side neighborhoods the Lodge decimated, eminent domain was enacted unfairly.

Very rarely is eminent domain enacted fairly, anywhere, for that matter. I just don't trust government that much, especially when you're talking about taking ones' property.

I would of thought that a city with such a history of with eminent domain would of been a little more careful. Zulu probably has to only modify the numbers on the mayoral suit thread to figure out how much in services on this bonehead move (admittedly, this one is not all Kwame's - it's, I believe, hindsight being 20/20, one of Dennis Archer's larger mistakes).

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