The Mayor and Council of the Borough of Westville will not, and henceforth cannot, use the power of eminent domain to forcibly take any parcel of real estate containing a legally permitted and currently utilized residential use (i.e., an occupied residential dwelling or dwelling unit being utilized as a residence at the time of the attempted taking not identified as a "problem property" as described in §
33-5), with or without fair compensation, for the purposes of economic development and/or to make such property available to another private real estate developer to facilitate a better use for said property in the supposed interest of the Borough of Westville.
Nothing herein shall be construed to remove or otherwise limit
the preexisting and currently existing power of the Borough of Westville
to use the power of eminent domain where necessary to promote a true
direct public purpose such as the erection of a government-owned public
school, hospital, roadway, public utility, public right-of-way easement,
water and sewer easement or other such true public purpose other than
economic development or redevelopment.
Nothing herein should be construed to restrict or limit the
otherwise recognized powers of the Borough of Westville with regard
to nonresidential properties containing no occupied residential dwelling
or dwelling unit, abandoned properties, legally condemned properties,
or properties which are not legally allowed to contain a residential
dwelling or dwelling unit pursuant to the presently existing laws
regarding zoning, occupancy, general housing or living conditions
or overall land use and land regulation, and nothing herein shall
be construed to limit or negate the enforceability or continued authority
of such laws. Nevertheless, for a residential dwelling or residential
dwelling unit within the Borough of Westville to be considered unoccupied
and thus outside the protection of this chapter with regard to the
limitation of the powers of local eminent domain, said dwelling or
dwelling unit must be unoccupied for a period of at least 90 days.
In all redevelopment issues regarding property acquisition it
shall be the responsibility of the Borough of Westville or any of
its elected officials or agents to discuss and negotiate with owners
of residential dwellings or dwelling units within the Borough of Westville,
as to proposed voluntary sales or transfers of lands, or proposed
alternate uses of said property, for the purpose of advancing positive
economic development within the Borough of Westville, nor shall such
voluntary agreements as may be reached with any such owners, for such
compensation as any such owners may voluntarily deem sufficient, be
considered to be in violation of this chapter.
Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the use of eminent domain in cases where the property can be identified and classified as a "problem property" as per the definition contained in §
33-6 of this chapter.
A problem property is defined as a property where enforcement action has been taken against the owner of any residential property in relation to Chapter
258, Property Maintenance; Chapter
272, Rental Property; Chapter
197, Housing Standards; Chapter
400, Nuisances, Public Health; Chapter
318, Solid Waste; or Chapter
205, Land Use and Development, and there has been adjudication or finding by an appropriate authority that the property owner was, in fact, in violation of one (or more) of the above-mentioned ordinances on, at a minimum, of two separate occasions within three years.
There shall be a committee appointed by the Mayor that will
review all appropriate information relating to a property as stated
above, and said committee shall determine if a property shall be declared
a problem property and not subject to the protections of this chapter.
The committee can include in its deliberations the seriousness of
any violations adjudicated above and may disregard violations that
they consider de minimis in nature.