Don’t ‘take’ a commercial building
“Monroe County commissioners used eminent domain last year to claim a valuable commercial building in the heart of downtown Stroudsburg for county offices.
Republican majority commissioners John Moyer and Charlie Garris pursued the misguided move over minority Commissioner Suzanne McCool’s opposition, and the county landed in court. Now county taxpayers are paying for a protracted legal battle that should never have begun.
While the county was working out an offer to buy the former Shearson building at 701 Main St., a private developer, Grist Mill Development LLC of Wescosville, bought it for $1.9 million. Commissioners then used their powers of condemnation to take the building, and Grist quickly objected.
A mediator is trying to help the county and Grist negotiate an acceptable price for the county to acquire the building, in keeping with the Fifth Amendment’s requirement that private property not “be taken for public use, without just compensation.””
Pocono Record 28 April 2014