A correspondent in Wheeling, West Virginia reports that “on May 3,2003, the THF Realty and Glimcher Corporation announced through our local paper that they were planning to build the “Wheeling Town Centre” in our neighborhood. Our city council stated that it was not involved.Since that time the Planning Comission has given the Urban Renewal Authority the okay to proceed further with trying to take our homes and land by declaring them slums and blighted and saying the area was already zoned commercial.Mind you, my house was appraised independently at $110,000 and is 93 years old,which is older than the zoning laws. We are a residental neighborhood with some businesses(small) combined in the mix. Many older people live here,and we keep our homes maintained and look out for each other. The decision to accept all that needs to be done to bring in some type of “redevelopment” is scheduled to take place on September 16, 2003.
For further information on the wheeling and dealing in Wheeling, contact Kevin Rusnak at [email protected]. To read about another eminent domain fiasco, search this database by the word “Maplewood”. A similar tactic of condemning property for a Wal-Mart is also going on in Alabaster, Alabama.
