House panel rips Riviera Beach over use of eminent domain

By Alan Gomez

Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

TALLAHASSEE — Riviera Beach's billion-dollar waterfront redevelopment project took a beating Tuesday during a meeting of a House committee that is studying ways to limit the use of eminent domain in Florida.

Representatives questioned the motives behind the redevelopment effort and the way it has been carried out, saying that the actions of the city's community redevelopment agency soon could make Riviera Beach the worst-case eminent domain scenario in the country.

"Riviera Beach, I promise you... is going to be the poster child of eminent domain abuse in this nation," Rep. Everett Rice, R-Treasure Island, told the committee.

Riviera Beach already has been in the national spotlight since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the city of New London, Conn., could take homes along the city's waterfront for development by a private developer.

City residents have been featured on national news programs as the next possible example of a city taking private land solely for "economic development."

The city's efforts could be hurt by the public outcry against government takings and the legislature's response to it.

The House Select Committee to Protect Private Property Rights was formed specifically to figure out how to restrict eminent domain proceedings for economic development by private developers.

"That's exactly what they're doing down there," said Rice, who has proposed a constitutional amendment that would severely restrict eminent domain powers. "You've got your mayor down there in Riviera Beach on national TV admitting that they're taking those parcels of land to increase the tax value. He said it."

But Floyd Johnson, executive director of the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, said legislators were ignoring the work Riviera Beach has done in getting people in the affected areas to agree to sell their land before seizing it.

Just two weeks ago, Martha Babson — a Riviera Beach resident who was one of the fiercest critics of the redevelopment plan — agreed to sell her house to developer Wayne Huizenga Jr. for more than three times its assessed value.

After original estimates of more than 5,000 people being displaced by Riviera Beach's proposed $2.4 billion redevelopment, city officials have said the number is closer to 347 homeowners and about 1,000 renters.

"Riviera Beach, as opposed to being a poster child for abuses of eminent domain, is going to be a model in terms of how we use that tool, if we need to use that tool, in order to realize the revitalization of a city that has long since been wanting to do it," Johnson said.

While Rep. Ron Greenstein, D-Coconut Creek, said he supports what the city is trying to do, he said he believes it is becoming a national poster child because of its mishandling of the entire project.

"It is one that has taken so long. After year after year after year with threats and rumors going through the community... of course you're a target," Greenstein said. "You haven't succeeded."