Councilman Jones under ‘bizarre’ eminent-domain fire in Germany Hill development lawsuit
“A developer’s nine-year attempt to construct housing on a strip of green space in Roxborough has devolved into a court battle over how much the city may have to pay for the land and his failed efforts to build on it.
Greg Ventresca, of the Keystone Companies Group, bought an eight-acre parcel near the Ivy Ridge SEPTA station in 2005 for $500,000. He is now asking the city to pay $2.5 million to cover the value of the land and his company’s costs in trying to develop the property.
A Commonwealth Court judge has ruled that Fourth District Councilman Curtis Jones’s actions to prevent the construction of homes amounted to the city’s taking of the property.
“I have never seen a situation so bizarre and blatant as this,” Ventresca’s attorney, Anthony Twardowski, said this week. “The efforts on the part of the city through the Councilman to thwart this development is just something I’ve never encountered before.””
Jaffe, Alan. News Works 28 July 2014.