Erie trustees adopt urban renewal plan for Old Town, but drop eminent domain after public outcry
“A huge crowd turned out at Town Hall on Tuesday night to decry a proposal to establish an urban renewal plan for Old Town, insisting that the matter be left up to a vote of downtown residents.
While the Board of Trustees decided against going to the ballot box and passed the plan, it stripped from it the town’s authority to condemn property under eminent domain powers for the purposes of spurring economic development after faced with intense public opposition.
More than 100 people showed up Tuesday, many streaming out the doors of the packed chambers, as the board took up the Historic Old Town Erie Urban Renewal Plan.
The final vote on adopting the plan without the power of eminent domain was 4-2, with Dan Woog attending his first meeting as a trustee of the board.
The plan, which would have given the town the power to condemn property in order to remedy blight, drove many Old Town residents to condemn it as a move that would threaten to strip the century-old historic district of its character and historic charm.”
Aguilar, John. Daily Camera 12 November 2013.
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