Condemnation Area Suit Settled

COURT HOUSE – Middle Township is making expansive use of New Jersey redevelopment and rehabilitation statutes to spur economic development.
Numerous areas along the Route 9 corridor from Court House to Rio Grande have been designated for redevelopment, along with parts of the Stone Harbor Boulevard corridor, an area along Route 47 that once was used for a cement factory and a large swath of land bordering Indian Trail Road.
That last area along Indian Trail Road was designated as a redevelopment area in May after concurrence by the township’s Planning Board.
Unique circumstances having to do with decades-old marketing promotions seeking newspaper subscriptions, left that area with numerous, unusable undersized lots, popularly termed “newspaper lots,” where current ownership is difficult to track.
When Middle Township Committee adopted the redevelopment ordinance for the Indian Trail Road zone, the need to accumulate and aggregate those irregular lots led to a condemnation zone designation.
It was the only area in the township’s redevelopment efforts where the governing body saw a need to potentially use eminent domain. At the time Township Solicitor Frank Corrado said the township had no plans to use eminent domain for any lots in the zone that were occupied.
That promise was not enough for some property owners in the newly designated redevelopment zone who objected to even the possibility that condemnation authority could be used against their properties.
A lawsuit was filed, a settlement was reached, and on Sept. 17 the governing body introduced an amendment to the redevelopment ordinance that removed condemnation capability from specific lots across the still-in-tack redevelopment zone.
The township’s special land use attorney, James Maley, explained that the demarcated redevelopment zone remains as originally defined with specific areas removed from the condemnation authority designation.
The area will have both segments where eminent domain can potentially be used by the township and areas where it cannot be used. 
Maley said the lists of properties removed from potential eminent domain consideration in the ordinance amendment mostly were those with structures, most of them occupied.
The amendment codifies what the governing body said was its intention when the redevelopment zone was designated in May.
The purpose of condemnation capability was to accumulate the irregular newspaper lots which remain vacant and unbuildable.
The settlement provides those with developed properties in the zone with protection from the use of condemnation authority in areas where the township had already disavowed its intentions to use such authority. 
It is a settlement which should, therefore, please all.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.