62-64 Main Street, L.L.C. v. Mayor & Council of the City of Hackensack

Plaintiffs owned five lots in the City of Hackensack on which stood two dilapidated buildings abutted by two poorly maintained and decrepit parking lots. Hackensack designated eleven out of twenty lots in a two-block area as in need of redevelopment, including plaintiffs' five lots. In doing so, the Planning Board made specific findings that those lots met the statutory definitions of blight in N.J.S.A.40A:12A-5(a), (b), and (d). The Hackensack Mayor and Council passed a resolution that adopted the Planning Board s findings. Plaintiffs filed an action in lieu of prerogative writs challenging Hackensack's classification of their lots as blighted, arguing that a finding of blight did not meet the constitutional definition of blight enunciated in "Gallenthin Realty Development, Inc. v. Borough of Paulsboro," (191 N.J. 344 (2007)). On that basis, plaintiffs sought to strike down the Mayor and Council's resolution classifying plaintiffs properties as part of an area in need of redevelopment. The Appellate Division reversed, holding that "Gallenthin" established a heightened constitutional standard for blight applicable to every subsection of the Redevelopment Law. After its review, the Supreme Court held that the Appellate Division over-read the scope of Gallenthin, which only addressed a specific constitutional defect in subsection (e) of N.J.S.A.40A:12A-5. Applying the required deferential standard of review to the municipal decision-making in this case, the Supreme Court agreed with the trial court that substantial evidence supported Hackensack's designation of plaintiffs properties as in need of redevelopment. Accordingly, the Court reversed the Appellate Division. View "62-64 Main Street, L.L.C. v. Mayor & Council of the City of Hackensack" on Justia Law