The Town Council was evenly split, five to five, Monday night on whether or not have a public hearing on a proposed Town Code revision that would increase the town’s power to acquire private property through eminent domain. Mayor John Harkins, in his role as breaker of council tie votes, voted in favor of moving the proposal to the Ordinance Committee for a public hearing.
The proposal will get a public hearing on Jan. 26 before being routed back to the full Town Council for possible action later. If the mayor had voted no, the proposal would have died.
Currently, the Town Code on eminent domain reads: “Within the territorial limits of the Town of Stratford, no real property may be acquired by eminent domain for economic development purposes … if the resulting project will be privately owned or controlled.”
The proposed change, sponsored by Councilman Jason Santi (D-4th) and written by Town Attorney Tim Bishop, says “Within the territorial limits of the Town of Stratford, no real property may be acquired by eminent domain for economic development purposes unless the Town Council shall determine that it is in the best interest of the Town to do so and that some public improvement results from such acquisition.”
The proposed change also says that property lawfully acquired by the town through eminent domain for typical public purposes, such as sewers, roads, and flood control, may be held or controlled not only by the town, as the code reads now, but also by “some other government entity.”
According to Bishop, other government entities that might someday have control of land acquired through the town’s eminent domain conceivably could be a non-town water pollution control authority or the state of Connecticut.
This proposed change to code did not work its way through a Town Council committee, as many local law changes do. Santi, who agreed to be the sponsor of the divisive proposal, said during Monday’s Council meeting that this “is not to take Grandma’s house.”
Santi said the proposed expansion of the town’s power to take property is intended to be “very limited in scope” and help the town deal with contaminated properties or possibly blighted properties like Ross and Roberts on West Broad Street.
During a break in Monday’s Council meeting Santi acknowledged that some members of the public may fear that, although a law may be intended to be limited, it might allow the town to go beyond the limits that the originators had in mind.
Harkins said after the meeting that his vote was “to get it to the public.”
Councilmen voting against further consideration of the eminent domain power expansion were Stephanie Philips, Matt Catalano, Joe Kubic, Ken Poisson, and Paul Hoydick.
Councilmen voting in favor of keeping the eminent domain proposal alive and moving it for public hearing were: Peter Massey, Santi, Brian Dempsey, Gavin Forrester, and Jim Connor.
Stratford Town Hall