Eminent Domain: This Land is Your Land (Or, At Least You Thought It Was)

I really just can't believe this one. New Jersey municipalities are constantly using eminent domain (or some variation thereof) to get its hands on private property for "public good."

Apparently, there's this family garage that the city of Cliffside Park is leasing out for its DPW vehicles. The reason they have to lease it out is because their efforts to build a new joint garage with Fairview has been stalled.

Since the lease is set to expire in a few months and since the Fairview deal is stalled, Cliffside Park is suing to SEIZE the garage from the family.

So, if the judge rules in Cliffside Park's favor, the Tapkas family could LOSE their garage altogether. Equally disturbing is the fact that this sets a very dangerous precedent that will no doubt leave our local governments salivating even more of what private property the can steal from us in the interest of "public good."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/judge_urges_joint_agreement_in.html