York mayor: City will not take homes in northeast neighborhood through eminent domain
“Despite a flurry of public and private redevelopment interest in York’s northeast neighborhood, Mayor Kim Bracey said the city has no plans to use eminent domain to procure private homes in the area.
“For lots of reasons, I’ve been very sensitive to that neighborhood,” she said during a Daily Record/Sunday News editorial board interview with her and Leonardo McClarty, director of economic and community development. “We will not be getting involved with taking of homes and moving people.”
Bound by Ridge Avenue to the east, North Duke Street to the west, East King Street to the south and Arch Street to the north, that section of York has seen the use of the controversial method of property seizure in the early 2000s and again this year.
In 2006, the city acquired some of the 24 properties demolished in the Arch Street neighborhood to make way for Santander Stadium through eminent domain. In the last several months, the Redevelopment Authority began eminent domain proceedings for the former county prison on Chestnut Street.
David Cross, chairman of the authority, said previously that the intention is for Think Loud Development, which is headquartered in the neighborhood at 210 York St. and plans to build a data center nearby, to develop the prison property.
But during the editorial board interview Friday, both McClarty and Bracey said that the RDA is not seizing the property because of Think Loud’s interest, but rather because it fits with the city’s development plans in that area.”
Sawyer, Hannah. YDR.com 3 August 2014.