Cincinnati land
seizure overturned
Calhoun
Street properties not blighted,
judge rules
BY STEVE KEMME |
SKEMME@ENQUIRER.COM
Using the Norwood eminent-domain case as a model, a state appeals
court Friday nullified Cincinnati's seizure of
two parcels on Calhoun Street
in Clifton Heights and declared the city's
eminent-domain ordinance unconstitutional.
The ruling
reverses a lower-court decision that upheld the city's right to take the
properties.
The city and a
developer used a blight study to take dozens of properties as part of a $270
million redevelopment plan along Calhoun
Street.
All of the property owners in the redevelopment district except the owners of a
former Hardee's and Arby's
eventually agreed to sell to the developer, the Clifton Heights Community Urban
Redevelopment Corp.
The Ohio First
District Court of Appeals said in its decision Friday that many factors that Cincinnati used for designating properties
"blighted" or "deteriorating" were struck down in the Ohio Supreme Court's Norwood decision."
"In sum, the
factors found to be blighting influences in this case simply did not establish
that the area was blighted or deteriorated," says the decision, written by
Judge Ralph Winkler. "The structures in the neighborhood were generally in
good repair."
The decision cites
the Ohio Supreme Court's precedent-setting
ruling last year that prevented Norwood
from using eminent domain to take properties that would have enabled a private
developer to build a $125 million office-retail-condo project at Edwards and
Edmondson roads.
Matthew W. Fellerhoff, lawyer for the two property owners, said Cincinnati's standards for declaring property blighted or
deteriorating were even more vague than Norwood's.
City Solicitor J.
Rita McNeil said her office would study the appeals court's decision before
recommending whether the city should appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.