The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-07-20
Atty. Cullinan Believes
 City Cannot Sell Plaza

(Continued from Page One) ., been destroyed and they are totaI loss. When this land was taken by condemnation or emident domain for sessed in favor of the owners to the full value Of this land.
 For Street Purposes.
 This was, of course. upon Qhe theory that the land would be used for street purposes TOT all time ana that the owners would have no further active or practical ownershlp of it. The city could now discontinue . about the creation of the Plaza ana reverse the assessments. Where the property owner was assessed damages for the burden placed upon his lana could now be taken off and he could be assessed benefits for the restora- tion to him of his land unincumber- ed by the public easement
 The result of th1s reversal of the proceedings by which the property was condemned would be to bring the treasury substantially the present land values of the various pieces Of land composing the Plaza" Mir. Cullinan was then asked this question:: 'tSupposing a former owner did not want to take his property
 back and pay for it the assessment which might be levied against him. could the city compel him 10 do it?'' To this MT. Cullinan replied: 'The proceeding would be substantially 4s follows: Let us assume that one Smith owned a parcel of land front ing upon the old layout Of Water treet before the widening which re- suited in the Plaza.
 Let us further assume that when the city condemned this piece of land for the street widening. it assessed damages to Smith TOT the full land
 value, which we will assume to have been S10,000.
 If the city should now discontinue the layout which widened Water erty to Smith free from the public right of way, the Board of Appraisal would aprobably assess benefits tc Smith for the full market value oi l his piece of land. and if the Board l of Appraisal estimated that at S1O,- 900 the assessment of benefits on this piece would be $10,000.
 Lien Upon Land. "If Smith refused to pay this as- sessment of S10,000 or such modifica- tion thereof as the court might make
 on appeal, the city would place lien of this assessmeu eut. If Smith con-
 tinued to refuse to pay the assess ment the city could foreclose the lien and by foreclosure pr oceedings ac- Quire title to this parcel of land. This same reasoning would apply to each piece in the Plaza.
 "Any percel that the city had to take title to in this way could, in my | opinion. be disposed of by the city | under proper legislative authority The city probably would not want to discontinue the extension of John street, but most of the land of the Plaza was taken by the widening of Water street.
 This Water street layout courc be discontinued by proper proceed ings and. as l have stated, by re- assessment the benefits could be brought into the city treasury. The
 effect of this would be. while not in form of a sale, in fact a resale to the various owners and their heirs. Plans Miscarried.
 "I have not been able 10 get an intelligent explanation from anyb ody as to why this large section of valu- Tne men who arc respousr51etToY have attempted to work out no plan for its legal use. The plans evidently nliscarried. At present I can think of
 no ether method by which the city could obtain any return of moneys from the Plaza than that have out Nned."