The TABOR Drive Property
Acquiring the property was the right course of action. The Town acted prudently and appropriately when it exercised eminent domain to acquire the Tabor property. The acquisition:
- anticipated and avoided a potentially serious threat to the health and safety of people residing so close to a landfill;
- reduced the financial risk for the Town that would follow from permitting residential development so close to the municipal landfill;
- provided the Town with land that was needed for valid public uses - recreation, public works and cemetery space.
The stage for the two devastating judgments against the Town was set by the Morris administration, which handed these Tabor cases to the Marcus Law Firm, a firm that wasn't familiar with the facts and lacked the necessary expertise to properly prepare the cases for trial.
The RTM was right to reject the proposed settlement brought forward by the Morris administration in 2007. The Town is the only entity with the proper motivation to protect its residents from both health and safety risks and liability risks.
Once returned to office in 2007, Unk brought in the best available attorneys to prepare and argue the appeals in both cases, working to defend Branford's interests as he has in the past.
The Facts About the Tabor Property
Allowing a large residential development to be built next to the Town's landfill would have created a threat to the health and safety of people living in those apartments and a serious financial risk for the Town and its taxpayers.
In 2003 and 2004, both the DaRos and Opie administrations, with the unanimous approval of the RTM and Board of Finance, acted to acquire the 77 acre Tabor Drive property next to the Town's landfill by eminent domain in order to insure that contaminants leaching from the landfill into the groundwater under the property could never threaten residents on the site and to protect the Town from liability for damaged health of residents, as has happened in other Connecticut towns.
The Town acted prudently and appropriately when it exercised eminent domain to acquire the Tabor property.
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