Over-Hype, Over-Development

Another Wilmette Plan Commission Meeting this Thursday, 7 pm. Still time to comment, still no decision. Previous posts here and here.

And apropos of local development, this last Friday was the first anniversary of the notorious Kelo decision, which the Supreme Court has yet to overturn. The Castle Coalition has published a report documenting where we are in Kelo's aftermath. One valuable section of the report deals with this:

Do private redevelopment projects that use government force live up to their billing? Hardly. Many are outright failures, as demonstrated by “Redevelopment Wrecks: 20 Failed Projects Involving Eminent Domain Abuse,” the first-ever collection of failed redevelopment projects that used eminent domain to acquire property.

This report details 20 prominent examples of those failures that fall into two categories. The first kind occurs when, after cities and developers condemn homes and businesses to make way for private redevelopment projects, the promised projects never materialize. The second kind of failure involves projects that, although completed, simply do not live up to the grandiose promises and lofty projections that were used to justify the abuse of eminent domain. For example, the new developments eventually fold, or, even if they survive, they produce fewer jobs and less tax revenues than promised—sometimes less than before the project was built. Quite often, the public’s financial costs—in the form of new debt, subsidies, other spending and foregone revenues—go through the roof.

Bert Gall, an Institute for Justice attorney, said, “The argument is always the same: bureaucrats and developers with big visions of how other people should live claim that the use of eminent domain is necessary for economic development. They promise glitzy development in the name of more taxes and jobs. There is a strong incentive for cities and developers to over-hype the benefits of private development projects involving eminent domain in order to garner political and public support. But it turns out that many of these projects are failures.”

As yet eminent domain is not on the table in Wilmette. But it's always in the background after Kelo. And when you mix in subsidized housing for village employees as an added vested interest, the situation is ripe for abuse.

UPDATE: Kelo on Kelo, via RCP