The Onondaga county executive promises the largest economic development
investment in state history, but it's going to cost some people their homes.
Our father was a Holocaust survivor.
He was about, I think, five years in concentration camps.
He came here and managed to get to New York city and then, um, managed
to go to school and become a dentist.
And this was his dream home.
So my grandparents, uh, have a farm on this road that
dates back to the 18 hundreds.
Her three sons built their homes across the street.
At the top of our road is actually where my grandfather was born.
The Richer and Serog families live on Burnet road in upstate New York.
Their properties sit next to roughly 1200 acres of undeveloped land
that's owned by the Onondaga county industrial development agency or, OCIDA.
Though it would only add 50 acres, OCIDA thinks Burnet road is the
key to finally getting a tenant to develop their unused lot.
Though the Richards and sarongs land is not for sale the county has
authorized the use of eminent domain.
This has stalled their plans for renovations and farming and has
cost their families thousands of dollars in legal fees.
It was tough, just having our own attorney.
You know, he advised that we not fight the, uh, eminent domain because
of the cost: hundreds of thousands.
At one point, uh, the county executive called our lawyer.
And, and I don't know what, what he said exactly.
But after that she quit.
So then it was a scramble to find another one [lawyer].
It was difficult because the OCIDA has retained six law firms in the town.
You wake up.
Three, four in the morning and you start thinking about it and, uh, you know,
halfway through the day, you're exhausted because all the stress it puts you
through thinking about it all the time.
It never leaves your mind.
What's happening on Burnett road is only possible because of this infamous us
Supreme court decision called Kilo V.
City of New London.
And in that case, a five to four court said that it was okay for the
government to bulldoze the working class Fort Trumbull neighborhood, based
solely on the fact that government officials said they could imagine
putting something nicer on that land.
It just doesn't make sense to grab all this land and hope that a tenant will
come by and pay tons of money for it.
These projects rarely have the desired result.
After 15 years and $80 million of wasted taxpayer money the bulldozed neighborhood
in new London remains an empty field.
The people whose empty promises of development fueled the
condemnation have all moved on to other jobs, but the residents of
Fort Trumbull can never go home.
The backlash to Kilo was immediate and overwhelming.
The Institute for justice led a nationwide campaign pushing back
against the wild abuses of eminent domain that are authorized by Kilo.
And we were largely successful.
44 states changed their laws to make Kilo style takings more difficult and
state Supreme court after state Supreme court rejected the reasoning of Kilo.
But unfortunately for people like the homeowners on Burnet
road, New York is an outlier.
In New York, the legislature has been looking to the courts.
The courts have been looking to the legislature, and that
means that new Yorkers have been looking at condemnation notices.
This was such a tight, tight knit neighborhood, and they've really targeted
this neighborhood for destruction.
It's just so sad.
If they can get their way with, uh, eminent domain.
Then...
Nobody's place is really safe in New York.
The Institute for justice is standing alongside the Richers, the sarongs and
all the other families who make their homes on Burnett road to make sure
that this kind of eminent domain abuse can't happen here, can't happen in
the state of New York and can't happen anywhere in the country ever again.
The Institute for justice has been wonderful.
For them to come along at the time when they did, to give us hope to give us
an outlook that maybe we can change this in New York state and possibly
be able to still stay here and retire.
Onondaga county officials are using the threat of eminent domain to
force sales from landowners here, and we are standing up to fight back.