Property Owner in Connecticut claims downtown redevelopment project affected his property’s value
A property owner has filed suit for inverse condemnation against the city of Derby.
The owners of Derby Feed were one of the many property and business owners that were told in 2000 that their property would be acquired through the use of eminent domain for the city’s downtown redevelopment project. At the time, according to the suit, the city also advised owners that they shouldn’t do any renovations to their properties because they wouldn’t be compensated for those.
Years later, the city and its developer, Ceruzzi Development, bought the properties around Derby Feed and “let the properties become blighted and eventually demolished some of the buildings in the vicinity of the property of the plaintiff, leaving a barren landscape which has and continues to adversely impact the value and use of the property.”
Now, the owners are asking for the city to purchase their property as was initially intended since by telling them they were going to be condemned and never doing it has caused their property’s value to decline.
“By taking everyone else’s property and saying you’re going to take [Derby Feed] constitutes a taking,” said Derby Feed attorney Dominick Thomas. “It still looks like a blighted area” due to the unfinished work in the downtown area, he added.