Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The fight between Buffalo lawmakers and the owner of two properties in the city's historic Cobblestone District over eminent domain doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.
It was on Tuesday when the Buffalo Common Council voted and approved the findings and determination statement supporting eminent domain for both properties located at 110 and 118 South Park Avenue.
According to lawmakers, they say the public hearing and review process conducted weeks ago revealed the properties had been neglected by their owners, Darryl Carr and Park Avenue Estates, leading to their current dilapidated state.
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Despite the City of Buffalo deciding to acquire these properties for reasons that benefit the health and safety interests of residents, Carr says those buildings have been a concern of his for quite some time.
"I have a demo order from the city, City Court judge saying that these are in danger of collapse. I had an order from a City Court judge 15 years ago. These are in danger, they're a public danger. They just ignore all this, which is criminal," said Carr during a recent appearance on WBEN on Wednesday. "I mean, I'm so concerned I put the scaffolding around the building, I put the barriers around the building, I watch that building constantly. I'm right next door, I'm concerned that somebody's gonna get hurt. That's my big thing, and I really am concerned. I love the City of Buffalo, love the people. This is a battle that nobody should have to fight. I'm fighting for everybody else."
Carr says Wednesday's decision did not come as a surprise to him, believing that the Common Council had an agenda they were trying to meet by taking back the buildings. He says he will continue to fight this eminent domain battle until the very end.
"This is a long legal process. We live in America, we don't live in China or Russia, so we have due process so the government can't do these kinds of things, or just take over your property or force you into situations that are illegal. So it's a legal battle," Carr said with Brian Mazurowski. "I have a really great team of attorneys, and we're going to go to the distance on this, and show this is a frivolous takeover."
Carr purchased both buildings at 110 and 118 South Park Avenue about 15 years, and at the time, engineers he had hired told him the structures are not saveable. Carr claims the buildings needed to be taken down and the facades would need to be reconstructed if they were going to be incorporated in any future structure.
"I applied for the first demo permit. It was consensus [with] all the engineers I brought through," Carr said. "Portions of the building on the inside have been down for years, making it dangerous. That's why we applied for the demo originally. You couldn't see them from the outside, but you saw the deterioration on the outside from when I bought it. Over the past 100 years, I mean, the one buildings been Phoenix Die Casting and Foundry operation since 1910, unheated and heavy industrial operations in there. So the damage was done way, way, way before I bought it. The feasibility studies, everything we did said, 'Hey, you have to take this down and build something that's going to pay for all this, to recreate these buildings.' That being said, some of the buildings were personally collapsed, even when I bought them."
With the fact both buildings had a long history of being used for industrial purposes, Carr says they were never properly maintained, thus leading to their rapid deterioration. However, Carr feels members of the Common Council don't want to properly address this matter.
"There was an agenda from the beginning, but they never listened to me," Carr said. "I mean, President Pridgen and Councilman Wyatt, they listened to me, they had to have. These buildings, whoever takes them over, [will have] to take them down, because the materials are so far deteriorated - they want to blame it on me, but it wasn't me. It was 150 years of deterioration."
