A long time to pay for pollution
“The city of Bridgeport thinks it can find a better use for a polluted, abandoned property in a key location. This ought to be an easy sell.
Controversy has arisen because, inconveniently, someone already owns the property, and the city is in the process of using eminent domain to seize it. Eminent domain is usually reserved for projects with clear public benefits like the construction of a school or hospital, but the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it need not be limited to those purposes.
Further complicating matters is that the property is to end up in the hands of Sal DiNardo, a developer with significant interests around the region who also happens to owe the city of Bridgeport millions of dollars in back taxes.
The company that owns the South End land says it has been left in the dark as to the eminent domain proceedings. The mayor, at a contentious City Council meeting this week, shot back that the company’s owners have been derelict in leaving the property polluted and unused.”
CT Post 5 September 2013.