Losers in court case on eminent domain are ordered off land

The Associated Press
Salt Lake City Tribune

9/14/05

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A group that won a Supreme Court victory allowing it to seize property for private development is telling some residents to vacate their homes, the latest flash point in a controversy that has spread across the country.
   Representatives of the homeowners accused the quasi-public New London Development Corp. on Tuesday of reneging on a promise not to seize the properties while lawmakers considered changing the state's eminent domain laws.
   State House Minority Leader Robert Ward, a Republican, called for a special session to enact a moratorium on property seizures, while the homeowners vowed to continue fighting.
   ''We're not going nowhere,'' said Michael Cristofaro, who received one of several vacate notices sent this week. ''They're going to have to pry my cold fingers

from the house.''
   Gov. M. Jodi Rell and state lawmakers had urged local governments to refrain from seizing property for development.
   But because the state had previously sanctioned the city's use of eminent domain for the Fort Trumbull neighborhood, it was unclear whether lawmakers could delay New London 's plans.