[HISTORY: Adopted by the Common Council of the City of Peekskill as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 11-9-2009 by L.L. No. 18-2009]
A. 
The sovereign, including any state or local government, is, by its historical nature, vested with the ancient power and authority to take private property for public use. That power and authority is traditionally and commonly called the "power of eminent domain." As a limitation on that power and authority, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides, in part, that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. Article 1, Section 7, of the New York State Constitution likewise provides, in part, that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. The Eminent Domain Procedure Law of the State of New York sets forth the process and procedure by which a local government may take private property for a public use and for just compensation. Case law, on both the federal and state levels, has addressed the issue, in varying circumstances, of what constitutes a public use. Generally accepted public uses include the use of property for municipal buildings, parks and other public spaces, public works facilities, municipal parking lots, roads and the development of public utilities. The Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Kelo et al. v. the City of New London, et al. has held that the taking of private property for economic development is a legitimate public use for the exercise, by a municipality, of the power of eminent domain. The Supreme Court in Kelo also said, though, that nothing in that opinion precludes any state, and logically, therefore, any municipal subdivision of a state, from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power.
B. 
The Common Council for the City of Peekskill views the property rights of citizens, in certain circumstances, to be paramount to the right of the City to exercise the power of eminent domain for the purpose of economic development. The City of Peekskill desires that its citizens and property owners, in those circumstances, be free from concern that their properties will be taken through the power of eminent domain purely for economic development. To that end, pursuant to the municipal authority recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States in Kelo v. the City of New London, as a further restriction and limitation on the use of the power of eminent domain in the City of Peekskill, the following restriction is hereby established.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following words shall have the following meanings:
BLIGHT
A condition of a particular parcel of property, which is either abandoned or severely neglected by its owner, which negatively impacts the physical, aesthetic, social, and/or economic well-being of the immediate neighborhood, including, as examples, but not limited to:
A. 
A property with broken doors or multiple broken windows, a substantial amount of broken or missing siding, broken or missing roof shingles or visibly decaying or unsound structural elements; or
B. 
A property which is extremely unkempt and continually littered with an accumulation of debris, litter, rubbish or rubble for an extended period of time; or
C. 
A property with any other similar conditions of disrepair and deterioration, regardless of the condition of other properties in the neighborhood.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
A. 
Property development or redevelopment designed or intended to increase tax base, tax revenues, employment or general economic health; or
B. 
Property development or redevelopment designed or intended to improve the aesthetics of, or raise properly values in, a neighborhood.
A. 
The City of Peekskill shall not invoke the power of eminent domain for the sole purpose of economic development on any property in the City of Peekskill which:
(1) 
Is benefitted by a valid and subsisting certificate of occupancy; and
(2) 
Has not been used for any purpose other than that permitted by the certificate of occupancy during the two-year period immediately preceding the Common Council's determination to invoke eminent domain; and
(3) 
Has not been vacant for more than two years immediately preceding the Common Council's determination to invoke Eminent Domain; and
(4) 
Has not been determined by the Common Council to be a blight on the neighborhood; and
(5) 
Poses no hazard or danger to the public health, safety or welfare.
B. 
Except as provided in Subsection A above, the City of Peekskill reserves the right to invoke the power of eminent domain as provided in common law and by the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York, the Eminent Domain Procedure Law of the State of New York and any other federal, state or local law, rule or regulation as may be adopted or amended from time to time. However, the use of the power of eminent domain may be invoked only by a supermajority vote of at least 5/7 of the Common Council.