Thompson Street Landgrab – Closed Door Politics in small town Amercia

Just when I didn’t think it was possible for the Town of Middleboro to do any more possible harm to the community and its residents by supporting a mega-resort casino on sovereign land, they turn around and do something like this. In case you missed it, a wonderful friend of mine is being forced to sell her land on Thompson Street to the Town of Middleboro even though she has decided to take it off the market. Casino Blogger Fiferstone really conveys our friend’s anguish over all of this while Gladys Kravitz and Carls Casino Quotes and Commentary have done a terrific job outlining what the Town is forcing our friend to do.

Here is an interesting statement made in response to Middleboro forcing my friend to sell her land to them:

WHY IS MIDDLEBORO TAKING LAND BY EMINENT DOMAIN? TO PRESERVEIT OR SELL IT TO CASINO INTERESTS FIVE YEARS DOWN THE ROAD??

In my friend’s own words, she has no problem selling her land to the Town for conservation reasons….heck, it’s Chapter 61 land and she has always known that the Town would have right of first refusal in the purchase of this land. So she did all the right things when she decided to sell….found a buyer, notified the town and waited to see if they would refuse to buy the land. She was extremely surprised when the Town came back and said they wanted to purchase the land for conservation. Let’s face it….this Town doesn’t have two pennies to rub together, never mind 244K to actually purchase this land. Okay, so the Town wants to buy her 12 acres for preservation….she was perfectly okay with that until she heard about the real plans the BOS and the Town Planner have for that 12 acres on Thompson Street. According to inside sources, the Middleboro Town Planner discussed at a BRAC (bingo resort advisory committee) meeting to support buying the land now so they can turn around and sell it to the Tribe a few years down the road and the BOS sat in executive session discussing how to purchase this land. So my friend did what any self respecting anti-casino person would do in this situation, she took the land off the market and was fully prepared to carry the financial burden of that land forever and ever….as long as her land was not given to the Tribe, she would keep it. She got together with her lawyer, prepared letters rescinding her land from the real estate market and notified all applicable Town Departments and BOS that the land was no longer for sale. That should have been the end of it, but this is Middleboro……

To her surprise, once again, she was notified by Town Council that she legally could not rescind on her purchase and sales agreement due to some questionable legal language and the Town would be buying the land if article 30 was approved by voters at the upcoming Annual Town Meeting on May 13th. No choice for her in this matter. The Town wants her land and damn it, they are going to have it!

This entire situation has literally made my friend sick. She has lost sleep over this and is so distressed over it all it makes me sick. I too understand that the Town has right of first refusal for Chapter 61 land, but what really gets to me is the fact that the Town is forcing her to sell it even though she has removed it from the market. This situation is akin to a local government evoking its power of eminent domain on a private citizen. Technically it is not eminent domain, but it might as well be considering the fact that my friend does not want to sell this land anymore….and based on the past and ever continuing actions of the Middleboro BOS and Town Planner, this story should scare the hell out of any homeowner whose property is contiguous with the proposed 559 acres of land to be taken into trust by the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe. Heck, we already know that the Town Government is working in the best interest of the Tribe and not the Town. So what is in store for landowners in the future when the Tribe decides it wants to expand it’s “reservation”….or when it buys the Thompson Street land from the Town and puts in another access road to the casino…or a parking lot. What will happen then? Will the Town or Tribe force the sale of private contiguous land by power of eminent domain for expansion? I don’t know….but I know this type of abuse of power is happening all over our country right now for all the wrong reasons. I also know that the town is already forcing an unwilling landowner to sell her property so they can offer it up to the Tribe at a later date. The idea of eminent domain is scary enough….to watch your friends experience it first hand for the benefit of casino gambling is downright sickening.

By definition, eminent domain is the power to take private property for public use by a state, municipality, or private person or corporation authorized to exercise functions of public character, following the payment of just compensation to the owner of that property.

Federal, state, and local governments may take private property through their power of eminent domain or may regulate it by exercising their police power. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires the government to provide just compensation to the owner of the private property to be taken. The problem with the Fifth Amendment protection is that it doesn’t take into consideration that sometimes people don’t want to sell their homes….no amount of money is worth losing their homes so private developers can make a profit.

Most people I know have heard of "eminent domain" and they know the government sometimes takes private land for projects the public will own and use, such as a highway or post office. The problem is that few people realize that state and local governments routinely take individual homes and businesses to transfer the land to private businesses for private profit.

Eminent domain is the power to force four elderly siblings out of their home of the last 60 years, as recently occurred in Bristol, Conn. Eminent domain is the power to evict a small family-owned woodworking shop to make way for Home Depot, even if that means the small business will never reopen, as took place in East Harlem, N.Y. Eminent domain is the power to take the home from a woman who lived there for 50 years because an indian casino wants to expand operations, as is taking place in Niagara Falls, New York.

There are two vital constitutional limits on eminent domain power. First, government cannot take land without paying for it; “just compensation” must be paid. Second, government may take property only for “public use.” However, these limits have failed to stop local and state governments as well as private industries from exercising powers of eminent domain. In fact, in recent years there has been growing concern about the manner in which some states and the government exercise their power of eminent domain. Some governments appear inclined to exercise eminent domain for the benefit of developers or commercial interests, on the basis that anything that increases the value of a given tract of land is a sufficient public use.

Here is a wonderful quote by Dana Berliner, a Senior Attorney at the Washington, D.C. based Institute for Justice:

Originally, “public use” was understood by everyone – courts, local governments and the general citizenry – to have its ordinary meaning, and eminent domain was used only for projects that would be owned by and open to the public – things like roads, water systems and public buildings. Times have changed. Now state and local governments think they can condemn anything for any reason. They freely use eminent domain to benefit all kinds of private parties – casinos, Costco, upscale condos and office buildings, to name a few. - Dana Berliner

If you think that this couldn’t possibly happen here, think again. In June of 2005 the Supreme Court shocked and frightened land owners across America by ruling that private property can be seized by the government and sold to private developers in order to generate tax revenue and spur economic growth. That case, Kelo v.City of New London, opened up pandora's box for local governments to use eminent domain for private gain.

In Kelo v. City of New London the Supreme Court changed its interpretation of the Fifth Amendment. Historically, the government's right of eminent domain has only been invoked when land is needed for a distinct public purpose – such as a highway, public school, hospital or military base. The words "for public use" and "without just compensation" in the Fifth Amendment were meant to provide safeguards against excessive, unpredictable, or unfair use of the government's eminent domain power. As a result of the court's decision in the case of Kelo v.City of New London, local governments and private developers have the power to take residences by eminent domain and bulldoze them for projects such as mega resort casino expansions under the guise of benefiting the community through economic development. Basically, the Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Gee, and aren’t we constantly being told what an economic engine this casino will be? Land along and around route 44 certainly could qualify as primo real estate for “economic growth” for the Tribe and for private developers.

The scary thing about this ruling is that the Supreme Court has given local governments the green light to confiscate private property for profit. Private homes and small businesses can now be bulldozed and replaced by upscale retail and housing developments, office buildings, hotels, casinos and other redevelopment projects that are owned by private individuals, corporations and even sovereign nations. I cannot believe that this blatant abuse of power was what our Country’s founding father's had in mind when they drafted the constitution.

So in a nutshell, the Town of Middleboro is forcing my friend to sell her land. No, it isn’t actually taking my friend’s property by eminent domain, but the point is they could take it by eminent domain …so could the Tribe and their investors. The bottom line here folks is that she does not want to sell this land yet is being forced to sell to a Town that would be much better off spending that money on more important and vital things. I really hope the residents of Middleboro think long and hard about the prospects of eminent domain in regards to this casino debacle. Will it happen to you? I don’t know….but I do know that it could and probably will at some point if this casino pipedream is allowed to come to fruition. From where I am standing, it seems that the Tribe and their investors already have too much control on MiddleboroTown politics and there isn't even a casino at this point and there probably never will be. All of the residents of Middleboro need to pay close attention to what the Middleboro BOS, Town Planner, and yes…even BRAC are doing – or planning because with little or no interest in voting on your Town Articles leaves them as the ones with the power - and power without any checks will inevitably lead to abuse. Eminent Domain is certainly no exception.

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