The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-09-13
SEASIDEPARK THREATENED New Harbor Line Gives Fix tensive Riparian Rights to
 Locomobile Company "LITTLE JOKER" WILL MAKE CITY PAY WELL Peoples Playground Once
 More In Danger Pre-
 vented in 1907

vC11UCu ILL 1JOl
 The Park Commissioners are con- fronted by a problem that is likely to prove perplexing to them. It is how to save Seaside Park from injury in case the Locornobile Company of Ann erica should exercise it's rights as ri- parian owner and fill in the harbor, in front of it's establishment, from the present shore front to the United States Harbor line.
 Such fill would throw an insight ly piece of land diagonally out into the harbor, so that the view from the Park to Steeplechase Island would be obstructed. There is no harbor line except the United States line in front of the property of the Locomobile Go. City Attorney Thomas M. Cullinan,
 after reading the resolution adopted | by the Council, resembling the city harbor line of 1906, has reached the
 conclusion that no line has been laid
 at this point. Therefore the city is in
 the same position in which it found itself in 1907. At this time the State of Connecticut by special legislation,
 had granted to the Locomobile Com Epany some 40 acres of the harbor.
 This grant, by reason of the possi-
 bility that the ground would be filled
 in and occupied by unsightly build ings, was at once recognized as a threat to Seaside Park. A crusade for the repeal of the legislation was be-
 gun, with the result that the gift was
 pared down until the rights given to the company were confined substan- tially within the harbor line which the city had adopted in 1905.
 The grant of the state was to build a seawall at certain distance from
 the short. Such a grant conferred
 upon the Locomobile Company the power to begin at the seawall and fill
 toward the shore. They were restrain ed from the exercise of riparian rights
 by the harbor line of 1905. But the council, when it laid the so- called railroad harbor line, by which
 Haven Railroad Company, also discon- tinued the harbor line of 1905 and fail ed to lay another one, along the prop cray owned by the company. Hence nothing exists to estop the
 company from the exercise of riparian rights until the United States line is
 reached.
 It is now believed that Seaside Park cannot be protected unless the city
 and the Locomobile Company can come to a compromise, or unless the city shall lay a new harbor line. But if the city does lay a new har- bor line it will be obliged to pay dam
 ages to the Locomobile Company.
 
 one of the results involved in the ''Lit- tie Joker'' amendment to the charter which the Farmer exposed, both when | it came from the mayors stenogra- pher and when it made it's appearance | in the General Assembly some days later.
 The effect of the "Little Joker'' has
 already been explained by The Far
 mer, and in the elaborate opinion
 rendered by Former City Attorney | JI,0 tot nf nn- ticut has power to lay harbor lines without paying damages to upland | owners for their riparian rights, or rights to wharf out to fhei channel.
 This right the state shares with the
 Federal government, which does not pay damages to riparian owners when it locates a harbor line.
 The state may delegate it's own right to the city, or it may compel the city to pay damages.
 general assembly the state had dele
 gated to the city the right to lay lines
 without paying damages. The Little Joker' was so drawn | that when it was inserted in the char ter it compelled damages to be paid. ! There was nothing on the face of this legislation to indicate it's purport. It first appeared in the batch of pro- posed charter amendments which
 came to the newspapers through the
 mayors stenographer. Its true mean ing was exposed by the Farmer. The mayor announced that it was a cler- ical error It was withdrawn appa- rently so far as the administration was concerned, because it was not transmitted to the council with the
 other proposed legislation. But a little later it was introduced
 to the House by Representative Fay cite c. Clark, who afterward repud- lated responsibility for it. It then ap-
 peared that the Little Joker'' had been prepared by counsel for the New
 Haven Railroad. At any rate it was finally adopted without the dissent of any representative from Bridgeport in the General Assembly and it is now operatie,.
 Park Commissioner George M. protect the park during the legislative battle of 1907 is entirely familiar it is said with the situation that now pre- sents. He said, when interviewed by a rep resentative of the Farmer: "1 do not
 care to talk about the matter at this time The members of the Park conn mission are familiar with the situa- tion and will do whatever is neces- sary.''
 City Attorney Cullinan said: 'In view of the contradiction in the terms
 of the resolution locating the new har- bor line I believe that court will be obliged to find that no line was laid opposite the property of the To- comobile Company
 Conferences have already taken Locomobile Company and representa- tives of the Park Commissioners. But up till this time the matter is unset fled.