Sugarland Project Picks Up Steam In Missouri
http://www.examiner.net/stories/102307/new_211275989.shtml
With the purchase of seven additional properties at Monday night’s Board of Aldermen meeting, Sugar Creek is one-fourth of the way to breaking ground on the Sugarland project, a 225,000-square-foot retail center.
“We’re moving right along toward its implementation,” said City Administrator Ron Martinovich.
Eight of the 33 properties in the redevelopment area have been purchased by the city.
As it stands, eminent domain remains buried, a possibility lying dormant in the letters sent to homeowners and last known taxpayers currently living where the Sugarland project is planned. City officials continue to say they have no intention of using eminent domain.
Early Monday morning, Scott Bullock, senior attorney for the Institute of Justice, a nonprofit, sent Martinovich a letter asking the city to remove eminent domain authority from Ordinance 3149, the tax increment financing agreement between the city and JLP Sugarland, the developer of the project.
The letter reads: “Unless and until that is done, any assurances to the property owners that it is not the intent of the city to use eminent domain are empty promises without the force of the law.”
On Oct. 2, Bullock was in Sugar Creek to visit with residents living in the redevelopment area.
If the city refuses to meet Bullock’s request, the letter threatened “immediate action for injunctive relief by this firm or another.”
Bullock’s letter also mentioned a case, Arnold v. Tourkakis, that’s pending in the Missouri Supreme Court. If the court rules in favor of Homer Tourkakis, whose home in Arnold is being targeted for a shopping center, it will set a precedent for unchartered cities such as Sugar Creek. The action would bar the use of eminent domain in all unchartered cities in Missouri.
The properties purchased thus far by the city include the following: 505, 509, 511, 524 and 530 S. Harris; 11106, 11108 and 10938 Independence Ave.