Long Branch Seeks Review in Eminent Domain Case

TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  -- The state Supreme Court has been be asked to rule in a long-running dispute over eminent domain in a Monmouth County municipality.

Earlier this month, an appellate court found that beachfront homeowners whose Long Branch properties were condemned as part of a redevelopment project deserved another chance to challenge the city's assertion that their properties are blighted.

The panel found the city hadn't found actual blight under state laws that would have justified condemning the properties and ordered the new hearing, overturning a lower court decision that said the land seizure could go forward.

City attorney James G. Aaron filed a petition Thursday that asks the state's top court to clarify points in its 2007 decision, which the appellate panel used to reach its findings.

It was not immediately known, though, if the top court would hear the city's case. And lawyers for the homeowners said they would ask the court to dismiss the case entirely so their clients would not have to endure another hearing.

Aaron said the city wants the justices to clarify whether they meant for the ruling to apply retroactively to projects that have been in the works for years. He said the city met the criteria required under the state's eminent domain laws when the project was first approved 12 years ago.

The city also plans to ask for more direction on what evidence it will be permitted to use in an upcoming hearing before Superior Court Lawrence M. Lawson, who approved the condemnation of the properties in 2006.

Long Branch adopted a plan to redevelop its beachfront in 1996. As part of the proposal, it sought to condemn 24 properties that sit on the northern tip of the redevelopment area.

The properties were condemned using eminent domain, which involves a government taking land needed for a public purpose after paying fair compensation for it.

Homeowners have contested the city's assessments that the houses were substandard or unsafe, and that the neighborhood was essential to the redevelopment plan.