For 20 years, Amy Stanford and her sister Carolyn Wilson have run Time for Dinner, a family-oriented meal prep enterprise that has served generations of native households in Brentwood, Missouri. Now she’s one in every of a number of native small enterprise homeowners suing the town over its resolution to label their properties “blighted”—a designation that opens the door to property seizure for its sweeping $436 million redevelopment plan.
The continued lawsuit, filed in December 2023 by the Institute for Justice (I.J.), says the town is abusing its energy by invoking eminent area to push out companies underneath a doubtful blight designation. Underneath Missouri regulation, eminent area can solely be used for a reliable public goal, and invoking it for personal or financial improvement functions is prohibited. Circumstances of dispute over public use require a judicial dedication “with out regard to any legislative declaration that the use is public.”
In July 2023, the town authorized a plan to redevelop the Manchester Highway Hall with new workplace buildings and house complexes. Metropolis leaders argued that the redevelopment venture was vital to deal with persistent issues like flooding and crime and to generate new tax income.
Town has used a 2023 research by PGAV Planners, an city planning agency, to justify its blight designations. Town-commissioned research discovered that 48 of the 75 properties within the redevelopment zone exhibited “bodily deterioration,” whereas 26 had been vacant, sufficient to designate your entire hall blighted.
Bob Belden, I.J.’s lead legal professional on the case, argues that the research fails to show that the realm confirmed a “predominance” of unsafe situations, as required by Missouri regulation with a purpose to deem an space blighted.
The 2023 research lacked particular person property evaluation and included solely 40 images for 75 properties. Some properties had a number of footage, others had none. Addresses weren’t offered for the images, a few of which featured little greater than an unidentified car parking zone. A number of footage confirmed properties with cracked pavement, whereas different properties, like Time for Dinner, weren’t photographed and had no proof of blight offered.
I.J. has contested the proof on this survey in court docket, in addition to a 2018 blight research carried out by the identical agency that Brentwood has used to defend its actions. That 12 months, the town kicked off an $80 million flood mitigation venture alongside Manchester Highway, which was deemed successful by Brentwood Mayor David Dimmitt in 2022. Through the trial, which started in Could of this 12 months, the town used the realm’s state earlier than the venture commenced as proof of blight.
Belden contends that the town shouldn’t be in a position to retroactively discover justifications for the blight designation utilizing the 2018 survey. Town disagrees.
Town additionally wrongly cited constructing age (which might’t be thought of in a blight dedication as of 2021) as proof of blight in the course of the trial, counting on speculative claims about hazards reasonably than precise proof.
Talking with Motive, Belden says Brentwood’s eminent area declare is invalid as a result of the town’s blight definition, primarily based on minor points like peeling paint and driveway cracks, not meets Missouri’s requirements. State statute says that an space can solely be deemed blighted if it has a predominance of unsafe situations, deteriorated website enhancements, hearth hazards, or different points that hinder housing or endanger public well being, security, or welfare.
“What the town did right here as a substitute was if it recognized one occasion of peeling paint or a crack within the car parking zone, it might discover the property one hundred pc blighted,” he says.
Pictures of Brentwood landmarks like Metropolis Corridor and the police division had been proven to the town’s blight marketing consultant, a PGAV worker who carried out the research, in the course of the trial, alongside a Goal retailer with minor loading dock injury. When requested if these properties might be blighted, the marketing consultant agreed, noting cracks within the car parking zone on the police station. Dave Phillips, a Minnesota architect and property inspector for over 40 years, testified that utilizing the town’s blight standards, nearly any property might be deemed blighted, together with 70 p.c of Brentwood’s housing inventory underneath the town’s building-age customary.
Carter Maier, co-owner of Convergence Dance and Physique Middle, tells Motive he was initially supportive of the redevelopment plan till he realized the scope of the venture. “We actually like being right here….We like our neighbors. We just like the group,” says Maier. “We’re all for improvement and redevelopment, however not in a pressured manner that Brentwood Metropolis Corridor is making an attempt to do.”
Martin George, a landlord who initiated the lawsuit and proprietor of the constructing housing Feather Craft Fly Fishing, shared his motivations with Motive: “My very own elected Alderman did not signify me, they represented their Mayor.” It was a frustration shared by Carolyn Wilson, who tells Motive, “[It’s] very apparent that the town had determined earlier than they began any of this, precisely what they had been going to do….They weren’t looking for another technique to do it. And that is the irritating half….There are different choices.”
Enterprise homeowners had believed their issues had been solved after the town’s earlier flood-mitigation venture, Brentwood Certain, which constructed flood partitions and improved streets.
Amy Stanford disclosed to Motive that the venture considerably disrupted their enterprise and buyer entry. “One bridge was rebuilt, and the street was closed fully for 5 months, in order that was a large number.”
Since Brentwood Certain’s completion, “issues look even higher than earlier than,” Maeir acknowledged.
It is what makes the town of Brentwood’s eminent area declare so asinine, and why critics have described it as an unconstitutional land seize.
The Brentwood Metropolis Mayor’s Workplace, a number of members of the Brentwood Board of Aldermen, and Halo Actual Property Ventures, the chosen builders for the venture, didn’t reply to Motive‘s request for remark.
The trial concluded on Could 9 with a bench trial. After the trial, the town moved for a directed verdict, arguing an absence of enough proof. I.J. has filed a movement in opposition. As soon as the trial transcript is shared with each events, they will have 30 days to submit proposed findings of truth and conclusions of regulation, with a choice anticipated by late August.
