05/12/2002

There was a time when no one gave two figs about "The Fort," an old working-class neighborhood in New London. The Fort gets its name from nearby Fort Trumbull, which in 1781 fell to British troops led by Benedict Arnold.

This collection of 19th Century cottages, battered Victorians and a sewage-treatment plant survived two centuries of fires and hurricanes, but not a surging real-estate market. Like the fort before it, the neighborhood along the Thames River met defeat. The destructive weapon was not a siege cannon but "eminent domain" wielded by the New London Development Corp.

The nonprofit NLDC's stated goal is "to enhance the quality of life for New London's residents" through economic development. The citizens assumed that a local organization would look out for their interests. They should have remembered that Benedict Arnold was also a Connecticut boy.

Eminent domain is the right of the state to take private property for public use. Traditional public uses include the building of highways or courthouses. In recent years, though, governments have been using eminent domain to condemn private property for private uses, and that has property-rights advocates up in arms.

The Fort has now become a celebrated cause among critics of eminent domain. Once home to about 80 homes and businesses, the neighborhood was mostly condemned for upscale condos, office parks, hotels and stores. These buildings were to complement the shiny new Pfizer research facility nearby.

Seven homeowners in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood held out and sued -- putting plans for developing a hotel and conference center on hold. The Washington-based Institute for Justice supported them.

Nowadays, people who broadly define eminent domain argue that razing shabby areas for new development constitutes public use. "Pfizer wants a nice place to operate," David Burnett, a Pfizer executive, was quoted as saying. "We don't want to be surrounded by tenements." Mr. Burnett also happened to be the husband of Claire Gaudiani, former Connecticut College president who then headed the NLDC.

Residents and other New Londoners did not buy Burnett's assessment. The Fort was/is an just old-fashioned blue-collar area where auto-body shops thrived next door to modest homes. "It is by no means a blighted slum," said Neild Oldham, president of the New London Historic Society.

The area's curse was to wake up one morning as prime waterfront property. "They never said thank you [to us]for staying in the neighborhood, paying outrageous taxes, putting up with the filtration plant," said Michael Cristofaro, whose family lived on Goshen Street for 40 years. "But as soon as they see your land is wanted by a developer, it's 'Hey, get out. We have better use for your property.' "

By invoking the power of eminent domain, the NLDC deprived inhabitants of the right to profit from the economic turnaround. Stonington was once a low-income and rundown waterfront neighborhood, Mr. Oldham noted. One fisherman's cottage is now selling for $800,000. "That could have happened at Fort Trumbull."

Some residents charge that neighbors gave up their properties under subtle threats. They said that NLDC told them they would receive far less for their properties if they didn't accept the group's offer.

Solely from an urban-planning viewpoint, the new building projects make little sense. The Pfizer facility is less than a mile from New London's old downtown, which has empty historic buildings ready to be turned into stores and restaurants. There are five hotels. One of them, the historic Crocker House, stands empty. The planned commercial district around Fort Trumbull would create another downtown to compete with the old one.

This story has a bittersweet end. Last March, state Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Corradino ruled that the city could not use eminent domain to take 11 properties, because its plans were too vague. However, it could level four other buildings in "Parcel 3" for an office park.

Perhaps faded old cities would be better off without all these ham-fisted economic-development projects. Let them mellow into shabby but authentic backwaters. Eventually, newcomers who appreciate their character will come along and make them hip. "You have something unique," Oldham said of New London. "Stop trying to make it into something else."