Somerville pays $200k in eminent domain settlement
“Following a contentious trial in which city officials filed a restraining order against a developer’s father after he sent letters accusing Mayor Joe Curtatone of various crimes, the city will pay a $207,500 settlement to owners of a Pearl Street property it took by eminent domain.
The lawsuit was filed at Middlesex Superior Court in June by Mahoney Construction Company, Inc., which owned a vacant 8,267 square foot plot of land at 46 Pearl St. and 0 Florence St.
The city took the property by eminent domain on June 15, 2010 with the intention of constructing what will eventually become Symphony Park. The city gave Mahoney Construction $300,000 for the land, which Mahoney claimed was not a fair amount.
According to court documents, the city assessed a three-story residential building could be constructed on the land under the city’s zoning codes. But Mahoney Construction claimed the city’s zoning allowed a five-unit residential building to have been constructed with a special permit and the property should have been assessed as such, raising the amount they receiving in the taking.”
McLean, Danielle. Sommerville Local 18 December 2014.