I am privileged and honored to support Bob Wilson and Central Radio Corporation (CRC) in their effort to prevent the City of Norfolk from taking their business under the City’s exercise of the “right of eminent domain,” ostensibly for “public purpose” not for “public use.”
Apparently, Old Dominion University wants the property and instead of negotiating with CRC to buy it for a mutually agreed price, they approached the Norfolk Housing Redevelopment Authority (NHRA), to have it condemned as a “blighted property.” The property has been at the current location for 50 years, has been a Norfolk business for 78 years, and is a thriving defense contractor that employs 100 well paid engineers and technicians.
What makes this story even more disconcerting is that the NHRA has not specified the exact “public purpose” for which it is being taken. A restaurant or mall has been discussed as “a possibility.” This is no different than the Kelo decision in New London, CT, in which New London took a private residence for the purpose of conveying it to a third party that they thought would generate more tax revenue to the city. The property was never conveyed or developed.
The implications are clear: if we let this stand, then the City can take YOUR property for “public purpose,” not just Bob Wilson’s property.
I urge you to take three actions: (1) tell everyone you know about this unconstitutional taking of private property; (2) support the Virginia Constitutional Amendment on the November ballot that limits the exercise of “eminent domain” to “public use” not “public purpose;” and (3) consider supporting Bob Wilson’s suit against the city of Norfolk by making a donation to the Institute for Justice, the firm that is defending this case (https://www.ij.org/donate).
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