Members of the Kinston City Council deserve praise for tackling the blight that has gone unchecked in the city for too many years. They also warrant close watching as they employ the power they can wield in that work.
The council last month designated itself as an urban redevelopment commission, which gives it direct control over revitalization work in the Mitchelltown neighborhood, a unique, turn-of-the-century residential area eyed as the city’s first Urban Redevelopment Area (URA). The work is to begin in earnest with a scheduled public hearing Thursday to formally establish the URA and, if that vote goes as expected, to turn the project over to the city’s planning staff.
The redevelopment plan to be written by that staff will be subject to public review, public comment and a public hearing, but the final decisions on the fate of — potentially — some 200 private properties and 500 acres in the URA will come down to the city council alone. The success of this project will turn on the council’s own attitude toward cooperation and constraint, since the law allows it to work pretty much as a wrecking ball.
The state’s redevelopment law gives government the right to take private property for the vaguest of reasons — that it blocks “sound growth” or is detrimental to the “public welfare,” for instance. Currently, there is no block against government condemning private property for economic development purposes; the N.C. General Assembly should take time in the current session to produce a constitutional amendment that would prohibit this type of eminent domain abuse, but if that legislation is on the agenda, it’s down the list.
In fairness, there is no reason to believe the city council will slip the leash. After decades of doing nothing, the city has moved slowly against blight. The decline of Mitchelltown has been part of the public conversation for at least two years, since two murders there in 2010. City Manager Tony Sears first broached the subject of demolition a year ago. It took the city a until January to draw up a list of 30 targeted properties, and they were the easy ones — vacant, some owned by the city, many owned by estates or nonresidents and none in Mitchelltown.
Still, with direct control and few legal barriers, there is opportunity for dangerous official overreaching, particularly if the public ignores its own responsibility for oversight. Mitchelltown residents appear to agree. While they are gratified their neighborhood will get a shot in the arm from the city, they expect to be part of the planning process. Rose Clark, a Mitchelltown historian and preservationist, said in a recent news story the project hinged on the council’s seeking “advice and direction” from property owners there.
We would include in that group of stakeholders any city resident who desires the judicious use of government power, a surgical approach to redevelopment and respectful elected officials.