Enquirer credits Norwood for newly signed eminent domain bill

Yesterday, Gov. Strickland signed Senate Bill 7, which would have prevented Norwood from condemning the Gambles’ home and the properties of the other holdons at the proposed Rookwood Exchange site “because the city would have had to prove the neighborhood was at least 70 percent “blighted.” As is widely known, the so-called blight study commissioned by the developer found the neighborhood was not “blighted” at all, but was “deteriorating.“ A year ago, attorney Tim Burke lost the City’s argument before the Ohio Supreme Court that the area’s “deteriorating” condition was justification for the use of eminent domain.

The unofficial online version of Senate Bill 7 has this definition of “blighted area”:

(A) "Blighted area" and "slum" mean an area in which at least seventy per cent of the parcels are blighted parcels and those blighted parcels substantially impair or arrest the sound growth of the state or a political subdivision of the state, retard the provision of housing accommodations, constitute an economic or social liability, or are a menace to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare in their present condition and use.