In a case a lot of folks have been following, a New Jersey appellate court yesterday struck down an attempt to declare properties “blighted.” Turns out these properties in a residential neighborhood which was proposed to be cleared for luxury condos were not in fact blighted, or at least the government had not proven that they were. The court remanded the case to the trial court since the city had not established the case that there was “substantial evidence of blight.” City of Long Branch v. Anzalone, No. A-0067-06T2 (N.J. Super. Aug. 7, 2008). This decision follows up on the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in Gallenthin Realty Dev., Inc. v. Borough of Paulsboro, 924 A.2d 447 (N.J. 2007), which held that “blight” means more than “not fully productive.”
The opinion is posted here. A summary of the case from New Jersey Eminent Domain Law blog is posted here. The authors of that blog are counsel for one of the property owners, so the briefs are posted here. The Institute for Justice has information on the case here as well.