Eminent Domain: Is It Good Planning?

Eminent domain -- even to build much-needed schools -- has become a political tool, and not a planning tool in New Haven.

1 minute read

October 29, 2001, 10:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"New Haven needs improved schools. But the 10-year, $1 billion school construction and renovation program looks suspiciously like a case of the city's auctioning off large portions of itself mainly to procure hundreds of millions of dollars from the state. Developers, contractors, architects, and school administrators all benefit nicely, but neighborhood well-being and sound planning principles are almost entirely ignored.... The mayor has failed to give the professionals in the City Plan Department the authority to make sure the planning of each new or expanded school enhances, rather than detracts from, its neighborhood."

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism

FULL STORY: IS CITY SERVED WELL BY SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAM? NO: Neighborhoods pay price

Sunday, October 28, 2001 in New Haven Register

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