In Florida too many emergency calls qualify your area for "blighted"

[madfloridian]

This article set my mind thinking.
Eminent Domain Abuse Should Worry Floridians

Florida home and business owners were in grave danger before Kelo, and they are even worse off now. Despite repeated claims by the attorney general and others, Florida citizens have very little protection against eminent domain abuse.

The U.S. Supreme Court took away what little protection they might have had by ruling that the U.S. Constitution is no barrier to the use of eminent domain for private profit.

Florida municipalities routinely use eminent domain to take property for private development or to intimidate the rightful owners into selling "voluntarily." Boynton Beach, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville Beach, Jacksonville, Charlotte County, Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach all have used or threatened eminent domain for private development in the past five years.

The justification is always that the current homes and businesses are too shabby (i.e. "blighted"), and something newer and more expensive would be a better use of the land."

And as "blighted", your area could qualify for eminent domain proceedings under Community Redevelopment Plans. Am I exaggerating, not really. Apparently only one or two of the criteria are all that is necessary for your area to be taken for redevelopment.

"Fire and emergency medical service calls to the area proportionately higher than in the remainder of the county or municipality"

This is the 2003 definition of "blight" in Florida. It is difficult to put the link from the state website into Tiny Url, so feel free to find it. This is alarming.

Blighted area" means an area in which there are a substantial number of deteriorated, or deteriorating structures, in which conditions, as indicated by government-maintained statistics or other studies, are leading to economic distress or endanger life or property, and in which two or more of the following factors are present:

(a) Predominance of defective or inadequate street layout, parking facilities, roadways, bridges, or public transportation facilities;

(b) Aggregate assessed values of real property in the area for ad valorem tax purposes have failed to show any appreciable increase over the 5 years prior to the finding of such conditions;

(c) Faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility, or usefulness;

(d) Unsanitary or unsafe conditions;

(e) Deterioration of site or other improvements;

(f) Inadequate and outdated building density patterns;

(g) Falling lease rates per square foot of office, commercial, or industrial space compared to the remainder of the county or municipality;

(h) Tax or special assessment delinquency exceeding the fair value of the land;

(i) Residential and commercial vacancy rates higher in the area than in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(j) Incidence of crime in the area higher than in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(k) Fire and emergency medical service calls to the area proportionately higher than in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(l) A greater number of violations of the Florida Building Code in the area than the number of violations recorded in the remainder of the county or municipality;

(m) Diversity of ownership or defective or unusual conditions of title which prevent the free alienability of land within the deteriorated or hazardous area; or

(n) Governmentally owned property with adverse environmental conditions caused by a public or private entity.

However, the term "blighted area" also means any area in which at least one of the factors identified in paragraphs (a) through (n) are present and all taxing authorities subject to s. 163.387(2)(a) agree, either by interlocal agreement or agreements with the agency or by resolution, that the area is blighted. Such agreement or resolution shall only determine that the area is blighted. For purposes of qualifying for the tax credits authorized in chapter 220, "blighted area" means an area as defined in this subsection.

The 2003 Florida Statutes

Title XI
COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS Chapter 163
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PROGRAMS View Entire Chapter

163.340 Definitions.--The following terms, wherever used or referred to in this part, have the following meanings

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Then I guess St Pete's is blighted..weren't there a bunch of 911 calls

made because of Terri Schiavo?

[JDPriestly]

2. What about areas with many elderly people?

They probably call 911 more than any other group. The problem is that all the indications of blight also indicate poverty. Those of us who live in areas in which there is a housing shortage need to make sure that every community redevelopment project in our home town includes a low-cost, affordable housing component.

[madfloridian]

3. There is a website with lots of info about how to work on these issues.

It's called Castle Coalition. Very detailed and thorough.

http://www.castlecoalition.org/