Court upholds Asbury Park's right to take school board
building
BY
NANCY SHIELDSCOASTAL
MONMOUTH BUREAU
A state appellate panel ruled the
city has the right to take by eminent domain the school district's one-story
central administrative offices on Lake Avenue for the new townhouses and
condominiums being built on the city waterfront.
The decision, dated
today, upholds the 2004 ruling by Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson,
sitting in Freehold, in the city's favor.
"The court had to answer a
serious question as to whether or not a public entity, the city, has the right
to take, by eminent domain, the right of another public entity, the Board of
Education, and here it did so, very easily, based on the facts presented that
the Board of Education property was an administrative office and not essential
for the education of the students, '' said James Aaron, the city's redevelopment
attorney who argued the case for Asbury Park.
"And the court felt that
because a public purpose was being furthered - redevelopment - that outweighed
the use of the property by the Board of Education as an office building,'' Aaron
said. "Had the issue been different, had it been a grammar school or elementary
school or high school, the result may have been different.''
The
unanimous ruling allows Westminster Communities to use the land for the new
condominiums being built in the first phase of the company's development next to
Wesley Lake.
School Board President Robert DiSanto said he did not know
where the board will relocate its offices.
"It's our administration
building, and the city is putting our administrators out on the street right for
private development,'' DiSanto said.
