By Institute for Justice

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Residents have teamed up to fight a controversial land grab in the heart of Somerville, Mass. The Union Square Revitalization Plan (USRP) authorizes the use of eminent domain to demolish 279 privately owned properties for redevelopment as luxury condominiums and high end retail.  A group of property owners and residents are suing the city of Somerville and the Somerville Redevelopment Authority (SRA), arguing that the USRP is unlawful and violated their rights in the creation and execution of the plan. The lawsuit seeks to stop the city from using eminent domain to threaten and bully property owners for the benefit of private real estate developers.

In the USRP, the City claims that these properties are “decadent” in order to allow it to use eminent domain. However, the suit claims that the City declared these properties “decadent” in bad faith, and attempts to hide this fact by providing substantially incomplete, inadequate, misleading and incorrect data and analysis in violation of Massachusetts state law.

“There’s been so much misinformation and now the truth needs to finally come out,” said Aliki Pishev, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and a Somerville property owner. “The city has threatened to take my property for private development, claiming my property is run down. But that is a flat-out lie—my property is not run down. It has been the home to thriving businesses for many years.”

Mayor Joseph Curatone claims that the USRP is needed for the MBTA Green Line extension, a project that is an estimated $1 billion over-budget and under threat of cancellation. However, during a meeting of the Housing and Community Development Committee, he stated that even if the train station does not come to fruition, the City will continue to use eminent domain against property owners because it would be “good for the city.” The lawsuit claims that the USRP is not needed for the Green Line extension, and that only 2 of the 279 properties are actually needed for the proposed extension.

“The property at 47 Webster Avenue has been in my family for over 40 years. I am a single mother of three children, two of which are in college. I am a cancer survivor and I depend on the income of this property to support my family,” continued Aliki.  “Now the City wants to unethically and illegally take my property for its own profitable use. This ongoing harassment and intimidation has been extremely stressful, especially for something that is completely unconstitutional. We as the property owners and residents of Somerville must refuse to be intimidated and unite against this abuse.”

The suit also states that there was no meaningful public participation in developing the part of the Plan that calls for acquiring these properties for clearance and redevelopment, and that the City repeatedly violated Massachusetts’s Open Meeting Law.

The property owners are working with the Institute for Justice—a nonprofit civil liberties law firm that advocates for property owners fighting eminent domain abuse across the country.

“Clearly, Mayor Curtatone is using the expansion of the Green Line as a pretext for the unconstitutional taking of thriving businesses and homes in the Union Square neighborhood,” said Phil Applebaum, Activism Coordinator at the Institute for Justice. “Destroying these properties just to benefit private real estate developers is not a public use and sends a chilling message to every other business and homeowner in Somerville — their properties are not safe.”