99 CENTS RULING FACES CITY APPEAL REDEVELOPMENT HURT, OFFICIALS SAY.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer LANCASTER - Lancaster will appeal the ruling of a judge who declared unconstitutional unconstitutional adj. referring to a statute, governmental conduct, court decision or private contract (such as a covenant which purports to limit transfer of real property only to Caucasians) which violate one or more provisions of the U. S. Constitution. the city's attempt, since abandoned, to move out a 99 Cents Only store to make room for an expansion of a Costco. If allowed to stand, the decision by U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson could severely hamper the ability of the city's redevelopment agency to undertake future projects. ``The language of the opinion causes us concern. It says you can't take property unless you make a finding of blight blight, general term for any sudden and severe plant disease or for the agent that causes it. The term is now applied chiefly to diseases caused by bacteria (e.g., bean blights and fire blight of fruit trees), viruses (e.g., soybean bud blight), fungi (e.g. . That goes against every principle of eminent domain eminent domain, the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in law,'' City Attorney Dave McEwen said Tuesday. ``That puts up substantial hurdles that most agencies could not get over.'' The city has already spent $130,000 on the court battle in legal fees alone, not including staff or consultant time. McEwen said the appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will cost less than $30,000. Attorneys for 99 Cents Only said they expect to prevail on appeal and called the city's action a further waste of money. ``They are going to waste more of their taxpayers' money, but they've wasted so much already that it doesn't seem to be their concern,'' said Russell Wolpert, general counsel for 99 Cents Only. ``We have no problem with them appealing. We think the court's opinion was reasoned and well-written. We have every belief that additional federal court judges will come to the same determination as the existing one,'' Wolpert said. ``The judge's decision was a stinging rebuke to Lancaster but it was very precise and well-documented and set forth how Lancaster's position had no legal or factual support.'' Lancaster had dropped the plan to move out the 99 Cents store last November and has since announced that Costco is moving to a site that includes part of Lancaster City Park. In January 2000, the City Council, acting as the Lancaster redevelopment board, unanimously approved condemnation Condemnation bell, book, and candle symbols of Catholic excommunication rite. [Christianity: Brewer Note-Book, 85] Bridge of Sighs passage from Doge’s court to execution chamber in Renaissance Venice. [Ital. Hist. proceedings against the 99 Cents Only store, despite the pleading Asking a court to grant relief. The formal presentation of claims and defenses by parties to a lawsuit. The specific papers by which the allegations of parties to a lawsuit are presented in proper form; specifically the complaint of a plaintiff and the answer of a defendant plus any of more than 200 of the store's supporters. The 99 Cents chain filed a federal lawsuit, claiming that the city was trying to evict the business illegally and that city actions were violating the store owners' Fifth Amendment rights. The amendment proscribes the ``taking'' of private property ``for public use without just compensation.'' U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled Lancaster's actions were unconstitutional. ``In this case, the evidence is clear beyond dispute that Lancaster's condemnation efforts rest on nothing more than the desire to achieve the naked transfer of property from one private party to another,'' Wilson said in a ruling issued in late June. ``In short, the very reason that Lancaster decided to condemn To adjudge or find guilty of a crime and sentence. To declare a building or ship unsafe for use or occupancy. To decide that a navigable vessel is a prize or is unfit for service. 99 Cents' leasehold An estate, interest, in real property held under a rental agreement by which the owner gives another the right to occupy or use land for a period of time. leasehold n. interest was to appease ap·pease tr.v. ap·peased, ap·peas·ing, ap·peas·es 1. To bring peace, quiet, or calm to; soothe. 2. To satisfy or relieve: appease one's thirst. 3. Costco. Such conduct amounts to an unconstitutional taking for purely private purposes,'' Wilson said. McEwen said that Wilson's ruling was based on premises that have already been considered and rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit also was moot An issue presenting no real controversy. Moot refers to a subject for academic argument. It is an abstract question that does not arise from existing facts or rights. and should have been heard in state court first, McEwen said. The city also is maintaining that issues of redevelopment are the province of governmental bodies and not the courts. ``The California Legislature has made it very clear redevelopment is an important public purpose for which property may be taken by eminent domain. How individual projects are carried out within the bounds of the community redevelopment law are for legislative bodies and not the courts to determine,'' the city said in a press release. City officials planned to spend $3.8 million for the 99 Cents Only store lease and two vacant buildings, then turn them over to Costco for $1 and a payment from Costco to the 99 Cents store for the forced move. City officials said the spending would have been worth it to keep Costco in Lancaster and to keep the Valley Central shopping center shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marketplaces—in that the shops are usually amalgamated into financially healthy. In 1998, the city said it learned there was a risk that Costco would move out of the shopping center and possibly out of the city, officials said. The loss of Costco would have resulted in the loss of $350,000 a year in sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. revenues, which McEwen said would have been catastrophic to the city. The city dropped its fight to oust oust tr.v. oust·ed, oust·ing, ousts 1. To eject from a position or place; force out: "the American Revolution, which ousted the English" Virginia S. Eifert. 99 Cents out of the shopping center after losing its bid to get the lawsuit transferred to state court. At the same time, neighbor HomeBase asked for $1 million in return for agreeing to let Costco open a gasoline gasoline or petrol, light, volatile mixture of hydrocarbons for use in the internal-combustion engine and as an organic solvent, obtained primarily by fractional distillation and "cracking" of petroleum, but also obtained from natural gas, by station, officials said. The new Costco warehouse store is proposed for a site at Avenue L and 10th Street West, a plan that has drawn opposition from residents because it would require slicing 4.8 acres off Lancaster City Park. |
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