Complaint: Redevelopment violates civil rights
Attorney seeks to amend complaint in Broadway Gateway suit
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — The city violated the civil rights of lower Broadway property owners by declaring their properties blighted but failing to go forward with redevelopment plans, according to an amended complaint that will be heard in state Superior Court later this month.

Princeton-based attorney William Potter, of Potter & Dickson, filed the amended complaint on behalf of plaintiffs Kevin and Adele Fister, principals in Fuschia Triangle Corp. and Coach Corp., located in the Broadway Gateway redevelopment zone, alleging that the city’s 1996 redevelopment plan has violated their civil rights.

“The freedom to acquire, own, develop, redevelop and freely to sell or transfer private property is a fundamental civil right guaranteed by the New Jersey Constitution, the United States Constitution, and laws enacted pursuant thereto, including but not limited to the United States Civil Rights Act,” the complaint states.

“As a result of holding the plaintiff’s properties in a blighted area for a substantial period of time and without any intention on the part of the defendants to acquire, purchase or condemn through eminent domain the subject properties, the plaintiffs are deprived of their civil and constitutional rights.”

The motion to amend the complaint, filed July 29, has a tentative court date of Aug. 23.

In April 2009, Potter submitted his original complaint against the city and the City Council on behalf of the Fisters, seeking damages and to overturn the city’s unconstitutional designation of private property as blighted.

The complaint was followed by a request for an enlargement of time that would expand the challenge window from 45 days to 13 years.

The two sides met in Superior Court on the enlargement issue in October, where Potter argued that his clients were not truly informed of the ramifications of being in the zone.

In his July 26, 2009, motion for enlargement, Potter cited criteria the courts have used to grant enlargements, including substantial and novel constitutional questions and an important public, rather than a private, interest that requires adjudication or clarification as exceptions the courts have used for granting enlargement.

Judge Lawrence Lawson ruled against allowing the enlargement and in favor of the city in his November decision.

“It appears that plaintiffs, after over a decade of owning property in the city, have changed their position on the city’s redevelopment plan. Such a change of heart does not justify this court’s review of a designation of property over 13 years old,” Lawson wrote.

“As early as January 1996 and at the latest May 1996, plaintiffs knew that the Triangle had been deemed ‘an area in need of redevelopment,’ ” Lawson’s Nov. 30 decision states. “The court cannot agree with plaintiffs that the circumstances of this case warrant the enlargement of time for the plaintiffs to bring an action in lieu of prerogative writs.”

Potter also requested that another judge hear the arguments for an enlargement of time in a July 2 reconsideration brief that Lawson rejected in November.

In his July 2 letter accompanying the reconsideration brief, Potter requested that Superior Court Judge Dennis O’Brien hear the arguments that were previously denied.

Potter’s decision to pursue the case comes after a late April Appellate Court decision that overturned the redevelopment and zoning ordinances in Broadway Arts, the neighboring redevelopment zone.

“This motion is based on two court decisions decided subsequent to the order of dismissal that have addressed the same or similar issues,” Potter wrote in the brief.

In arguing for the motion to amend, Potter said the Appellate Division reversed a similar ruling by the same lower court in the Broadway Arts zone.

The Appellate Division ruled that the zoning ordinances in the Broadway Arts section of the city were invalid after three property owners in the zone challenged the city in court.

Potter explained that the city has not begun eminent domain proceedings on the Broadway Gateway properties but had done so in the case of properties in the Broadway Arts district.

He criticized the Superior Court ruling against allowing an extension of the time frame for challenging the city’s 1996 redevelopment plan.

“The court did not address the potential impact upon the Triangle plaintiffs if denied, nor upon the city of Long Branch defendants if enlargement was granted,” he added. “This alone presents a basis for reconsideration.”

The Broadway-Gateway redevelopment zone is made up of commercial properties, with the Fuschia Triangle comprising five contiguous lots bounded by North and South Broadway, Long Branch Avenue and Ocean Boulevard. The city designated the site blighted and “in area in need of redevelopment” in 1996.

In the lawsuit filed against the city on April 8, Potter argued that the Fisters have exhaustively pursued alternative courses of action and failed to gain the city’s approval of any plans to develop the Fuschia Triangle, one of the city’s six redevelopment zones.

The lawsuit sought to overturn the blight designation of the Fuschia Triangle and asked the court for compensatory and punitive damages for the defacto taking of the Fuschia Triangle, resulting from the city’s blight designation and its failure to condemn and take the property.

Broadway-Gateway is one of six redevelopment zones in the city. Other zones are Hotel Campus, Broadway Arts, Beachfront North, Beachfront South and Pier Village.

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.





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