(H/T – Jon Ham)
Remember the Kelo decision almost 2 years ago, giving the city of New London, Connecticut and developer Corcoran Jennison carte blanche to force out a bunch of homeowners for the sole purpose of gentrifying the Fort Trumbill area? It looks like that gentrification won’t happen anytime soon, even in a reduced role:
Faced with a tight lending climate, the Corcoran Jennison company has asked the Federal Housing Authority to back an $11.5 million loan to fund the long-delayed construction of housing on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.
Corcoran Jennison applied for the mortgage insurance last Friday, said Kristine Foye, spokeswoman for the New England Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The request was filed three months before a crucial May 29 deadline for the Boston-based developer to secure financing and sign a construction contract for an 80-unit complex of rental apartments and townhouses.
City officials and residents have closely watched the progress of the project, which would be the first new construction since eminent domain cleared portions of the peninsula for redevelopment.
Newsbusters notes the New London Day (the source of the blockquote) couldn’t bring itself to remember Sue Kelo. Between the legal bills and the extended time the land has sat vacant, I wonder if that apartment complex will ever replace the tax money that Kelo and her fellow former residents were paying.
I know it’s not quite the same, but I have a question for the folks at Milwaukee City Hall; how’s that Park East footprint looking? Do we have any construction going on that land?
It frosts (pardon the pun with a mountain of snow, alledgedly on the way) me that the govt. has no consequences of poor decisions such as the condemning in this case. They took $ off the tax roles and have no likely way of replacing it. I think we ought to have requirements that the developers who want the benefits of the eminent domain have to post a bond for the tax loss on the property before it gets taken. That would increase the risk of this kind of nonsense for the developer and slow the no consequence train of the local governments.