Eminent Domain Battle Heats Up in Kensington
““Days before Christmas I received several registered letters informing me that the titles of my properties had been transferred to the City of Philadelphia. Nobody had called me, nobody tried to contact me. They took them, just like that. Months later, I’m still fighting this,” he said.
Vice President of Conifer Realty Charles Lewis said that while his company may have faulted in general outreach, it did provide notice as required by law.
“You can argue whether or not they got enough notice but by the law, they got enough. We did a community meeting last summer, and I think for whatever reason we didn’t do the proper outreach and that’s why they think maybe we could’ve done better with notice and outreach. That’s why we’re doing the outreach now,” Lewis said.
One big complaint among the property owners is that Pennsylvania’s eminent domain law only gives a person 30 days to contest a seizure. Many argued that they would have filed to contest the City if they had known their rights early-on. The deadline to contest these seizures expired on Jan. 18, leaving property owners only one other legal option: negotiating just compensation with the City.”
Muse, Queen. NBC10 5 July 2013.