Residents Fight City's Eminent Domain Order: WJLA-TV7 (Washington DC), 3/16/06

Residents of the District's troubled Sursum Corda community are fighting city efforts to redevelop the area through the use of eminent domain.

The city wants to seize property in the housing cooperative to force a compromise on plans to build new housing in several price ranges to the area.

Sursum Corda residents recently fought off federal foreclosure by agreeing with a developer on a plan to pay them $80,000 for their homes and give them $80,000 toward the purchase of a new home in the redeveloped neighborhood.

But the developer and city officials can't agree on how many new townhouses would replace the Sursum Corda complex.

Some residents who spoke Wednesday at a D.C. Council hearing on the matter say they don't want to give up their property. But others say they believe the city must take over the land to keep limit the influence of developers.

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