Group To Mount Pleasant Officials: Vote Against Blight Or Resign

MT. PLEASANT, WI — A local community group is calling for the resignation of Mount Pleasant Community Development Authority members if they vote to designate areas within the Foxconn development zone as blighted.

According to the group A Better Mount Pleasant, residents have already received notice of eminent domain proceedings, and Village officials announced on March 20 public hearing that they intend to invoke “blighting”condemnation against property owners in the land acquisition process for Foxconn.

“Most of these homeowners haven’t even entered into negotiations with the Village before they decided to play the ‘blight’ card,” said Kelly Gallaher, a representative for the group. “The CDA has been given detailed information on why these properties do not meet the legal definition of‘blighted.’ They have ignored the law and their own neighbors, and appear poised to do it anyway.”

Mount Pleasant Village Attorney Alan Marcuvitz has gone on record saying the village is, in fact, properly applying state law that allows an area to be declared blighted even though none of the properties contained within the area are actually blighted. Among the provisions in state law that may aid the village's legal standing is the section that states, that land may be considered blighted within a development zone that “substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of the community.”

However A Better Mount Pleasant is countering, saying that the state statute that pertains to blighted property (included below) does not apply here.

Wisconsin State Statute 32.03(6) says that condemnation through blighting can only be used if the property is not occupied by the owner of the property, his or her spouse, or an individual related to the owner by blood, marriage, or adoption within the 4th degree of kinship OR the crime rate in, on, or adjacent to the property is at least 3 times the crime rate in the remainder of the municipality in which the property is located.

"None of the homes in the Foxconn zone under threat of condemnation meet these legal criteria." Gallaher says, “There is little doubt that actions to blight these properties will lead to a lawsuit which will not just cause problems for the FoxConn development, but could set a very dangerous precedent. If Mount Pleasant is allowed to blight perfectly good family homes and give them to a privately owned corporation, they can do it to anyone, anywhere.”The Mount Pleasant Village Code of Ethics ordinances state that any public official who knowingly acts in excess of their legal authority and official capacity has committed misconduct in office.

According to a news release from A Better Mount Pleasant, "any member of the Mount Pleasant Community Development Authority who casts a vote to impose condemnation through blight against property owners in the Foxconn zone does so knowing they are violating state law and is therefore called upon to immediately resign from service on the Village CDA."

“It took only seven votes to appoint these men to the CDA. We are prepared to offer hundreds to demand they step down,” said Gallaher.

Related Reading

A petition calling for the resignations can be found online through Change.org.

The vote is expected to happen on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 6:30 pm at the Village Hall.

The Mount Pleasant Village Community Development Authority is comprised of the following members: Rob Richardson - Chair, Matt Cramer, Frank Risler, Jack Thorsen, Jerry Franke, David DeGroot - Village President, Gary Feest - Trustee, Sam Schultz - Staff

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