Well, the little pink house was finally moved but the fiasco continues.
Like so many other projects that use eminent domain and rely on taxpayer subsidies, New London’s Fort Trumbull project has been a failure. After spending $78 million in taxpayer dollars, the city of New London and the private developer have engaged in no new construction since the project was approved in 2000. Indeed, since the property owners disputing the takings owned less than two acres in a 90-acre project area, the city has always had a vast majority of the land available for development. Yet, no new development has occurred. The preferred developer for part of the site, Corcoran Jennison, recently missed its latest deadline for securing financing for building on the site and was terminated as the “designated developer.”
Bold is mine.
And…
“New London’s Fort Trumbull project has been an unmitigated disaster,” said IJ Senior Attorney Dana Berliner, who litigated the Kelo case with Bullock. “Despite the infusion of close to $80 million in taxpayer funds and three years elapsing since the Kelo decision, there has been no new construction in the area and nothing to show but brown, empty fields. The developer was so desperate for funding that it applied to the federal Housing and Urban Development agency to obtain taxpayer-subsidized loans to build luxury apartments on the land where Susette’s neighborhood once stood.”
If you’re interested in continued fighting of eminent domain abuse…
On Monday, June 23, the exact date of the three-year anniversary of the decision, Susette Kelo, in a special video release, will ask people throughout the nation to join the Susette Kelo Liberty Club. Members are asked to make a special one-day small-dollar donation to Susette’s legal team, the Institute for Justice, which defended her and her neighbors in their fight, and which continues to battle eminent domain abuse nationwide. Every dollar raised on www.ij.org/KeloDay will be used to fight eminent domain abuse.
