Camden must move on "blight"
State lawmakers gave Camden a legal tool five years ago to do something about this problem. The Abandoned Properties Rehabilitation Act of 2004 gives municipalities in the state the ability to wipe out or transfer tax liens or to use targeted eminent domain to take over blighted, empty buildings. The buildings can then be either torn down, or handed to a nonprofit organization interested in rehabilitating the structure.
This is a powerful tool. Yet the city is not using it nearly enough. The City Council authorized using the act soon after it passed in Trenton, but city administrators never followed through after that.
There are times when a public use is simply to take out a blighted or blighting property. Public use does include police power protections, simply protections to eradicate unsafe conditions for the general community. Camden’s use of the appropriately delegated statute to eradicate blight is such an example.
