Quote Originally Posted by Gistok View Post
Yes... the Freida Alibri heirs, owner of 5 parcels near Columbia and Clifford were the major holdouts. Mike Ilitch got their property in the initial west of Woodward Comerica Park plan with Eminent Domain... but with the move to the east of Woodward site, the Alibri heirs fought to get their land back... but then later balked at paying the increased city taxes at the over million dollars that Ilitch originally payed them... which they later gave back when they got their property back. They have been the MAJOR, although not only holdouts for the west Foxtown site [[other owners were on the periphery... but the 5 Alibri parcels were smack in the middle of the west Foxtown site.
I can't understand why Ilitch could not simply swap five of his parcels or more for their five. I can't believe that this situation had to be so intractable. An arena behind the Fox would have been an ideal situation. This just points out why trying to get something done in Detroit is so difficult. You can get 99 people to agree on something but there is always one person or one group that won't budge. When it comes to property being used for parking, the owner should only be able to lease it from the city until such time when the city decides it wants it back to develop something. Or there should be an agreement that says to the property owner of a parking lot that they only have so many years to use it as a parking lot. After that they have to either develop a physical building on the site that meets a given zoning code or it reverts back to the city. Who knew 100 years ago that city property would be hostage to those owning property in it. An individual's right to own land in a city should be different from owning land, like a farm, in a rural area. Striking down eminent domain in Michigan will haunt Detroit for decades to come.