Appeals court rejects NFR effort to re-open Centennial Park eminent domain case
The request, by Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) and an affiliated company, Blue Apple Properties Inc., came in response to efforts by city officials to reclaim ownership of approximately 5 of the roughly 12 acres of property subject to the eminent domain ruling because NFR never properly gained title to what was previously the 10th Street Park.
NFR filed a motion in the Appellate Division Fourth Department of New York State Supreme Court in March asking the justices there to review and reverse their July 28, 2023, unanimous ruling that the city was justified in seeking to use eminent domain to take up to 12 acres of undeveloped land for the park and events center project. Lawyers for NFR had argued that the claim by the city that it already owns some of the proposed park property, based on newly discovered evidence, 'probably would have produced a different result' if the appeals court justices had been aware of it in 2023.
'Because this new evidence is manifestly inconsistent with the facts on which (the July 2023 ruling) is based, (NFR) respectfully asks this Court to vacate (the ruling),' NFR's lead lawyer, John Horn, wrote in a filing with the Fourth Department.
Horn also asked the appeals court to 'reject and annul' findings by the Niagara Falls Common Council that the proposed park project would be a public benefit or serve a public purpose.
In a blunt, but unsigned, three-sentence decision released on Friday, the court wrote, 'Now upon reading and filing the papers with respect to the motion, and due deliberation having been had thereon, it is hereby ordered that the motion is denied.'
Mayor Robert Restaino did not comment on the appeals court ruling.
A spokesman for NFR could not immediately be reached for comment.
In their original ruling, the Appellate Division justices wrote that 'the city's determination to exercise its eminent domain power 'is rationally related to a conceivable public purpose.''
The justices said they came to that conclusion because the Centennial Park proposal would develop parkland and other recreational space as well as 'revitalizing and redeveloping a longstanding vacant lot, which was a blight on the city.'
The Niagara Falls City Council has directed the city's corporation counsel to 'take all necessary steps to commence any and all legal action ... in order to declare the transfer of (10th Street Playground, 907 Falls St.) null and void.' The city's special counsel for the Centennial Park project, the Buffalo-based law firm of Hodgson Russ, has filed what is known as a quiet title action to reclaim the former parkland.
A quiet title action is a legal proceeding where a lawsuit is filed to establish clear ownership of a property. The city claims the transfer of the playground property in 2004 was not properly completed.
NFR has insisted the property was 'lawfully' transferred, and is fighting the quiet title action.
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