Real Estate & Property Law

Mayor Bing No Longer Sends a Mixed Message

By Alan Ackerman

In the most recent Mlive article written by Jonathan Oosting, Mayor Bing's provided a final decision that there will be no eminent domain as part of the downsizing for the City of Detroit.  At the same time, the Mayor said, 'relocation would ‘absolutely' be part of any plan' to have the city right sized.

     This offers an interesting conflict, or one that may very well be required in order to move forward with a 'rightsizing' plan for the City of Detroit.

     This writer suspects that the relocation benefits which will be made available, as part of any plan will be so substantial that very few owners would reject moving if their moving was required.  At the same time, the City also will have to recognize that it may be required to receive state legislation to limit fire and police to neighborhoods, which do not maintain certain minimum densities.  The real question is whether Mayor Bing has the stomach to really go through with this whole process.  One hopes he does if they still have an affinity for the City of Detroit.

mlive.com

"This plan ultimately belongs to the people of Detroit.  We won't succeed without their support and cooperation." And most importantly, he said, "We will not take the position of forcing people from their homes."

Bing sparked fears among some residents last year when he suggested relocation would "absolutely" be part of any plan to rightsize the city in the wake of continued population loss and revenue.  A staff member in August stressed the city would not "force" any relocation, and today marked Bing's most concrete clarification.

While the city may offer incentives to encourage residents to move from blighted to stable neighborhoods, it will not use eminent domain.  Bing has also ruled out annexing parts of the city.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on September 14, 2010 (boomark / email).