NJ Judge Approves Eminent Domain Seizure Of Private Home To Give To Casinos (VIDEO)

ATLANTIC CITY — A Hammonton man’s fight to keep the Atlantic City home that his family has owned for more than four decades took a hit today as a judge ruled a state-run agency has the authority to take the property through eminent domain.

Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez found that the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has a valid public purpose for seizing the brick walkup on Oriental Avenue, which is owned by Charles Birnbaum and his wife, Lucinda. The agency has targeted the property, which sits in the shadow of the now-shuttered Revel Casino Hotel, as part of a mixed-use development project in the city’s tourism district.

Birnbaum’s lawyers have said that the agency had failed to provide sufficient detail about why the property is needed and how it will be used. Lawyers for the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, however, contended that the agency does not need to identify exactly what will go on the property before acquiring it through eminent domain, saying the agency is seizing the land as part of its legislative mandate to create a tourism district in the ailing resort town.

Mendez wrote in his decision today that the state’s “effort to promote tourism in Atlantic City and assist the ailing gaming industry is a valid public purpose to justify the taking of the Birnbaum property.”

Further, Mendez found that the CRDA is “not required to produce plans identifying specific uses or structures for the property. The court agrees that like most large development projects, the process begins with the assemblage of land for a public purpose.”

Stuart Lederman, the attorney representing the agency, said the decision allows the “CRDA to continue it’s mission to revitalize Atlantic City.”

Robert McNamara, a senior attorney with the Virginia-based Institute for Justice working on Birnbaum’s behalf, vowed to appeal.

“To use eminent domain you need to have a public purpose and a public purpose has to be something more than we want to take this. But that’s all the government has here,” he said. “All the government has is the bare desire to take this property and then think really hard about what might go there some day in the future, maybe. That’s simply not enough.”

Birnbaum’s parents bought the home in 1969. Birnbaum said the property served as a refuge for his family. Though tragedy unfolded within the house when his mother and her live-in caretaker were murdered there by an intruder in 1998, Birnbaum has said he never considered selling the property. He now uses the first floor apartment as a base for his piano tuning business and rents the second and third floors to long-time tenants.

Birnbaum tonight said he was deeply disappointed in the judge’s decision.

“It’s just kind of a feeling of both hurt and disappointment,” he said. “It’s a little bit of an empty, just an empty feeling. It’s hard to describe.”

Mendez’s decision said “this court acknowledges ad empathizes with the Birnbaums desire to keep this family owned property. On the other hand, the court is satisfied that the CRDA is acting within the statutory framework and objectives of the New Jersey legislature.”

The judge’s decision said the court would not sign the declaration of taking for 45 days.

McNamara said “we plan to appeal and we plan to keep Charlie and his tenants in possession of the home for the duration.”

Source: NJ.com