Winning! # eminentdomain4good Eminent domain is the power of the state to take possession of private property for public use. For over two hundred years, eminent domain has been used to create New York’ s parks and open spaces. Prospect Park, Central Park, Astor Place and over 350 other parks and open spaces were created when the City used its power.
We met Prospect Lefferts neighbors ready to take on a lot full of trash on their block in 2012. The City refused to intervene: the lot was“ private property.” But the last known owner had passed away twenty years before, leaving a home that subsequently burned to the ground, and an unsettled estate. The neighbors cleared the garbage away and started growing. They hung a swing from the branches of the decadesold willow tree and started a community compost program, transforming food scraps from local home kitchens into healthy growing soils Our hypothesis was this: if we organize, we can convince the City to use eminent domain to preserve the value that residents create when they transform abandoned and neglected vacant lots into community spaces.
In 2016, the city had set aside $ 1.25 million for the Department of Parks and Recreation to acquire the lot for permanent preservation as parkland. We continue to support the community as they battle speculators’ claims for the property and organize to support the Department’ s Uniform Land Use Review Process( ULRUP) to formally approve acquisition.
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