IJ Client Carlos Barragan Jr. at the CYAC gym in National City, Calif.

On September 25, 2007, the Community Youth Athletic Center (CYAC), represented by the Institute for Justice of Arlington, Va., is stepping into the ring to challenge the decision by National City, Calif., to re-apply a bogus "blight" designation to two-thirds of the city and target the gym, as well as many other properties, for eminent domain.  

In 2005, National City approved a luxury condo project on the gym’s land and immediately threatened it with eminent domain.  In response to a firestorm of public outrage, National City has been trying to assure the gym that the City will not use eminent domain even though the City gave itself the power to take the gym any time in the next 10 years.   

National City is merely doing what eminent domain abusers do all the time:  trying to convince fearful citizens not to exercise their legal rights by promising that eminent domain will never be used against them.  Unfortunately, people all over America regularly have their property condemned for a fancy condo development or big box store after these sorts of promises are forgotten and the right to mount a legal challenge has expired. 

This challenge will vindicate the gym's fundamental rights under the state and federal constitutions, as well as the gym's rights under California redevelopment statutes, including recent eminent domain reform.