Our recent post about the civic, moral and economic disaster in Minnesota, whereby that state’s supreme court approved the taking of the subject property for redevelopment in the Eagan case (click here https://gideonstrumpet.info/?p=2380), even though the court knew and expressly acknowledged in its opinion that no redevelopment was taking place, reminded us that this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened up there.
Take a look at Johnson v. Minneapolis Community Development Authority (Minn. 2003) 765 N.W.2d 403. Were we to describe here what went on in that case, this would be a very long post at the end of which you might not believe us, so you better read for yourself what the Minnesota Supreme Court had to say about the Johnson saga of municipal chicanery and bad faith. Also see an earlier case arising out of the same redevelopment, La Societe Generale Immobiliere v. Minneapolis Community Development Authority, 44 F.3d 629 (8th Cir. 1994) in which the federal court of appeals reversed a fully-justified trial court award of $17,280,000 to a French developer who was enticed to become involved in a redevelopment project in Minneapolis — associated with the notorious Nicolette mall — only to be harassed and frustrated by the city, and prevented from completing the project. While the mayor was doing all he could to frustrate SGI’s proposed plans, the city represented to the owner that all was hunky dory, and the city was proceeding with the project. Don’t take our word for it. Do read that case. Whatever you may think about the legalities of the matter, the treatment those Frenchmen suffered was uncionscionable. You may also find a shorter version of that saga in a law review article appropriately entitled Cities Gone Wild, 32 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 1465, 1475 (2006).
And that wasn’t the end of it. If you want to know what happened later, do read the Johnson opinion which affirmed an award of $4,348,000 to the mistreated land owners. It was another saga of delay, mendacity and abuse of property owners targeted for the taking of their land for redevelopment, that extended for years. Long story short, it was more or less a repetition of the Societe Generale disaster, except that this time, the Minnesota Supreme Court upchucked, intellectually and morally speaking, and could not stomach the city’s conduct. So it reversed the Minnesota Court of Appeals holding and restored the trial court award.
So why are we writing about that sorry mess years after the fact? We’re glad you asked. In the process of writing about the Eagan case, it occurred to us that we should also find out what happened in the wake of Johnson. In the process, we discovered that after all that sturm und drang, after all the municipal chicanery and prevarications, the redevelopment project was not built and the Johnson parcel remains vacant.
Your tax money at work.