Biersdorf & Associates

Lanning Square revival is needed, but Camden must negotiate for occupied units without eminent domain.

In recent years, three major redevelopment proposals — in Cramer Hill, Bergen Square and Waterfront South — have all collapsed in Camden for the same reason: The city threatened to forcibly take too many homes and businesses away from their owners. Those residents and business owners subsequently fought the redevelopment plans tooth-and-nail until the plans died.

So now Camden, under a new chief operating officer and new regime at the city’s redevelopment agency, is looking to revive another downtrodden, crime-ridden neighborhood — Lanning Square — with a major redevelopment.

Redevelopment is badly needed in many of Camden’s neighborhoods, including Lanning Square, where trash-covered empty lots and crumbling rowhomes — some occupied, some vacant — dot a landscape where drug dealers have too much power. The city now proposes transforming the 51 acres with 400 single-family homes and 60,000 square feet of retail space. Millions of dollars would be made available in rehabilitation grants and loans for nearby residents to fix up their properties.

It seems like a good plan for a neighborhood that could use improvement. However, it’s absolutely critical that Camden not repeat its past mistakes. Forcing homeowners and business owners to sell through the government’s eminent domain power shouldn’t be part of the process. Too much public trust is lost and too much ill will builds up when the city comes in with an iron fist and tells people, “Here’s what we’re giving you for your home, now get out.”

The plan calls for taking just three occupied residential units on Clinton Street and six mixed commercial/residential units on Broadway.

This may not seem like much compared with the 140 units the plan originally called for to be taken by eminent domain, but tell that to the people who stand to lose their home or store.

If this plan is to work, the city needs to negotiate with all these home and business owners and strike sales agreements without even the threat of eminent domain coming into play. These property owners, who would be inconvenienced by having to move, should see a profit from their sale that leaves them feeling they made out well. They must not be made to swallow a prescribed price which leaves them feeling bitter and ripped off.

The city also needs to take every action it can — through zoning changes, ordinances and other means — to guarantee that future administrations won’t seek to expand the redevelopment zone and take more occupied homes.

Residents shouldn’t have to be fearful about redevelopment in their neighborhood; they should be excited.

As the emotions that poured out at Tuesday’s City Council meeting show, the city has a lot of work to do to make sure this redevelopment project is something the majority of Lanning Square residents buy into and want to see happen. If the city once again moves in a heavy-handed manner, threatening eminent domain and trying to simply squash residents’ dissent, the city will find itself presiding over another failure. That cannot happen again.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080710/OPINION/807100328/1006