Eminent Domain Abuse in Mount Holly, NJ
ALERT: EMINENT DOMAIN IN MOUNT HOLLY ON HOLD.
Read on for more details, then please CALL the Mount Holly Township Council at 609-845-1100 and tell them to let the Gardens homeowners stay in their community. Their e-mails are also available here:
- Thomas Gibson, Mayor: [email protected]
- Ryan Donnelly, Deputy Mayor: [email protected]
- Kimberly Kersey, Councilwoman: [email protected]
- Dwynne Belton, Coucilman: [email protected]
- Richard Dow, Coucilman: [email protected]
CALL Keating, the developer, at (610) 668-4100
CALL Pulte, who will build the townhomes, at (866) 785-8325
Background
Township officials in Mount Holly have been systematically dismantling the Gardens, a close-knit community of row houses that up until recently was home to more than 300 families. Since 2003, the Township bought more than 200 homes under the threat of eminent domain.
Just three days before Christmas, many of the remaining homeowners were notified that they had until January 15, 2011, to accept the final offers made for their homes or they will be condemned through eminent domain.
The Township wants to give the land to Philadelphia developer Keating Urban Partners, which plans to build hundreds of higher-priced townhouses, apartments and a business center. According to Pulte Home’s website, some of the new town homes will sell for in the upper $200s.
Most of the homeowners in the Gardens are in their 70s, 80s and 90s and African-American or Hispanic. Many have faced serious health complications and family tragedies and deaths since the proposal for the demolition of their neighborhood was announced. Nearly all have lived in the Gardens for more than 30 years and are first-time home buyers.
Media
Bloggers, download JPGs of the two billboards for your blog here and here.
New Study: Finds that Gardens Redevelopment May Result in Loss to Mount Holly Township of more than $1 Million Annually Instead of Predicted Windfall.
(Original fiscal impact analysis available here.)
Full Page Ad: Download the ad in the Burlington County Times.
Download Analysis of the West End Redevelopment in the Township of Mount Holly.
News: “NJ Town Revives Eminent Domain Abuse of 1950s” Huffington Post.
News: “Was a Neighborhood Destroyed for Nothing? A disruptive N.J. redevelopment may be costly, too,” Philadelphia Inquirer.
Read: IJ’s amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Mount Holly v. Mount Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, Inc.
Questions?
Contact Christina Walsh, the Institute for Justice’s director of activism and coalitions, at (703) 682-9320 or [email protected].