Harrison land owners fight eminent domain
Tuesday, September 09, 2008By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Several property owners in Harrison will have the chance, starting today in a Jersey City courtroom, to argue that their land should not be taken by the town through eminent domain.
They will not be joined, however, by Tony DeRose, who had fought to keep his truck tire repair shop at Middlesex and Second avenues until he recently fell ill. Unable to keep the business open, his family has agreed to sell the property to the Harrison Redevelopment Agency, according to their attorney, Richard P. DeAngelis of Newark.
Another property owner, Manuel Amaral, had to sell his used car dealership and repair shop near the Harrison PATH station and move them to Lyndhurst when he was evicted in May 2007.
His business, which thrived on commuter traffic, has since fallen off drastically, Amaral said yesterday. “Seven thousand people walked by every day,” he said. “I’ve lost 95 percent of my business.”
Amaral’s Princeton-based attorney, R. William Potter, is confident he can prove that the property was not “blighted,” as the town argued when crafting its redevelopment area in 1997.
Potter pointed out that since the state Supreme Court issued a ruling last year that tightened the criteria under which towns can employ eminent domain, almost every case has been decided in favor of property owners.
Steve Adler and his sister, Marion Seltzer, who owned a 9-acre parking lot and factory complex in the zone, will also fight the blight designation at the trial starting today before Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli.
In February, a state appeals court ruled that Harrison did not give the property owners sufficient warning that they could lose their property when the zone was created, meaning they could challenge any subsequent eminent domain proceedings.
The redevelopment area covers about 250 acres, or a third of the town, south of Route 280 on both sides of the PATH station. It is planned to include the new Red Bulls soccer stadium, parking lots and mixed residential and commercial uses.
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