Not For Sale: Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse

Long Branch, NJ 2006

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Eminent Domain Abuse

Fall of 2006

The small shore cottage neighborhood in the town of Long Branch, NJ in which this series was made, sits directly across the street from the Atlantic Ocean, just south of Seven Presidents Park.  The quaint neighborhood consists of many middle income, working people, as well as some who retired from the cities of northern New Jersey decades ago to live out their golden years in their own slice of heaven down the shore.   In 2005, the city of Long Branch, in hand with real estate developers, used the legal action of Eminent Domain to condemn the entire neighborhood in order for the land to be privately redeveloped in an upscale condo project.  The neighborhood was already being towered by a similar development just blocks south.

In traditional uses of Eminent Domain, the government usurps private land for public use, such as high tension power-lines, railways and hospitals, and is constitutional under the 5th amendment.  Though even those traditional cases have always been politically contentious, the modern phenomena of municipalities claiming neighborhoods are “blighted” in order to change private ownership for real estate development has rightfully drawn anger and criticism for being an abuse of the statute that threatens basic property rights.  Many towns argue that by removing less dense, lower value housing and replacing them with higher value developments, the town receives more tax revenue and economic stimulation and is therefore in the “public use”, giving theoretical justification to these Eminent Domain actions.

Another unethical part of this transaction is the common undervaluing of what “fair compensation” is legally owed to those having their property forcefully taken by the local government.  The dealings between developers and government officials that lead to these types of Eminent Domain actions would seem to be blatant government corruption, but is currently being shielded by these misappropriated laws.  If Eminent Domain actions like these continue to be legally upheld, it would mean anyone who owns a modest home could have it legally taken by the local government and given to a developer who intends to increase its value.  It is the selling out of American citizens’ liberties by their government to facilitate lobbied private profit.  With increased real estate values attracting development like this in many shore towns, middle class beach side communities are sure to continue to disappear in New Jersey. 

The residents of this neighborhood have collectively mounted a legal challenge to the city’s attempts to steal their property through this Eminent Domain abuse, in what is sure to be a challenging litigation.  The photos in this series challenge that these houses are “blighted”.  If this neighborhood is condemnable, then so is most of America.

*Update:  In 2008, in a decision parting ways with other courts in the country, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled in favor of the homeowners, reversing the Superior Courts decision that permitted the neighborhood to be condemned and therefore allowing homeowners to keep their homes and their neighborhood. 


Anthony Brooks, "N.J. Development Plan Causes Rumbling in Town," All Things Considered, NPR, 8/3/2005, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4784368

                "Long Branch , NJ Eminent Domain," Institute for Justice, 8/30/2006, https://ij.org/case/city-of-long-branch-v-gregory-p-brower/

                *Michael Rispoli, "Long Branch, homeowners settle 5-year eminent domain dispute, Star Ledger, 9/15/2009, https://www.nj.com/news/2009/09/long_branch_agrees_to_end_push.html