"Powerhouse" Redevelopment Amendment Allowed for Decades Old Blight Designation

The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division recently published its decision affirming a trial court decision which disallowed a challenge to an  amendment to a redevelopment pan by the City of Jersey City in its Powerhouse Redevelopment Area.  Powerhouse Arts District Neighborhood Assoc. v. City Council, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div, 2010).   Along the way to its affirmance, the appellate court pointed out that review of a redevelopment plan challenge is governed by a different standard of review than review of a challenge to a blight designation (arbitrary or capricious v. substantial evidence), and the court saw “no reason to accord a less deferential standard of review to the adoption of a significant amendment than to the adoption of the initial plan.”

Although not subject to direct challenge, one of the most interesting aspects of the case is that the challenged redevelopment plan that was adopted in 2004 included lots from the “Bay Street” Redevelopment Area that was blighted twenty-nine years earlier.  Although not directly related to the court’s holding, it simply concluded that “mere passage of time does not erase [the] validity of a blighted area designation.”