Wilson v. City of Long Branch

• Decision Date: 16 June 1958
• Docket Number: No. A--123,A--123
• Citation: 142 A.2d 837,27 N.J. 360
• Parties: Harry J. WILSON and Lucy Wilson et al. (except Plaintiff, Jessie A. Howland and sons, Inc.), Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF LONG BRANCH, a municipal corporation, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Page 360

27 N.J. 360

142 A.2d 837

Harry J. WILSON and Lucy Wilson et al. (except Plaintiff Jessie A. Howland and sons, Inc.), Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF LONG BRANCH, a municipal corporation, Defendant-Respondent.

No. A--123.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued April 22, 1958.

Decided June 16, 1958.

William R. Blair, Jr., Red Bank, argued the cause for plaintiffs-appellants (Parsons, Labrecque, Canzona & Combs, Red Bank, Attorneys; Theodore D. Parsons and William R. Blair, Jr., Red Bank, of counsel).

Clarkson S. Fisher, Long Branch, argued the cause for defendant-respondent (Edward F. Juska, Long Branch, of counsel).

David D. Furman, Atty. Gen., argued the cause as intervenor.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

FRANCIS, J.

On February 15, 1955 the Mayor and Board of Commissioners of the City of Long Branch adopted a resolution pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55--21.1 et seq., requesting the planning board to make a preliminary investigation and to hold a public hearing for the purpose of determining whether an area of the city referred to therein was blighted. The area, which is located on the portion of the northwestern perimeter of Long Branch fronting on the Shrewsbury River and on a creek flowing into the river, was described as follows:

'Beginning at the intersection of the Shrewsbury River and Branchport Creek; thence eastwardly along the Shrewsbury River to the extension of Manhasset Avenue; thence eastwardly along Manhasset Avenue extended and Manhasset Avenue to Patten Avenue; thence westwardly along Patten Avenue to Florence Avenue; thence southwardly along Florence Avenue to Joline Avenue; thence westwardly along Joline Avenue to the westerly bank of Troutman's Creek; thence northwardly along the westerly bank of Troutman's Creek to Atlantic Avenue; thence westwardly along Atlantic Avenue to Branchport Creek and along Branchport Creek to the point and place of beginning.'

The board undertook the preliminary investigation and conducted public hearings on May 3, 17 and 25, June 8, 22, July 13 and August 2, 1955. On September 8, 1955 it adopted a resolution declaring the area to be blighted within the meaning of the statute. After receiving a copy of the resolution and report and reviewing the entire matter, on October 4, 1955, the board of commissioners approved the determination of blight.

On October 31, 1955, 27 days thereafter, the plaintiffs instituted this action in lieu of prerogative writ in which they sought a judgment that the resolutions of both boards are illegal and void because the Blighted Area Act is unconstitutional (for various reasons to be discussed) and because the proceedings before both bodies were not conducted in accordance with the requirements set forth in the act. The trial court sustained the municipal action and we certified the matter for review on our own motion.

I.

The Issue of Constitutionality.

Section 1 of the act, N.J.S.A. 40:55--21.1 defines a 'blighted area' to mean an area

'wherein there exists any of the conditions hereinafter enumerated:

'(a) The generality of buildings used as dwellings or the dwelling accommodations therein are substandard, unsafe, insanitary, dilapidated, or obsolescent, or possess any of such characteristics, or are so lacking in light, air, or space, as to be conducive to unwholesome living;

'(b) The discontinuance of the use of buildings previously used for manufacturing or industrial purposes, the abandonment of such buildings or the same being allowed to fall into so great a state of disrepair as to be untenantable;

'(c) Unimproved vacant land, which, has remained so far a period of ten years prior to the determination hereinafter referred to, and which land by reason of its location, or remoteness from developed sections or portions of such municipality, or lack of means of access to such other parts thereof, or topography, or nature of the soil, is not likely to be developed through the instrumentality of private capital;

'(d) Areas (including slum areas), with buildings or improvements which by reason of dilapidation, obsolescence, overcrowding, faulty arrangement or design, lack of ventilation, light and sanitary facilities, excessive land coverage, deleterious land use or obsolete layout, or any combination of these or other factors, are detrimental to the safety, health, morals, or welfare of the community;

'(e) A growing or total lack of proper utilization of areas caused by the condition of the title, diverse ownership of the real property therein and other conditions, resulting in a stagnant and unproductive condition of land potentially useful and valuable for contributing to and serving the public health, safety and welfare.'

The legislation provides that if, after certain proceedings have been taken, a portion of a municipality is found to be blighted within that definition, the governing body 'may, but shall not be required to, acquire the real property within the area by purchase, or by eminent domain proceedings, and may proceed with the clearance, replanning, development or redevelopment of the area as a public purpose and for public use, or the said governing body may, by resolution, agree that a private corporation may undertake such clearance, replanning, development or redevelopment in accordance with statutory authority and subject to the provisions of paragraph 1, Section III, Article VIII, of the Constitution.' N.J.S.A. 40:55--21.10.

Community redevelopment is a modern facet of municipal government. Soundly planned redevelopment can make the difference between continued stagnation and decline and a resurgence of healthy growth. It provides the means of removing the decadent effect of slums and blight on neighboring property values, of opening up new areas for residence and industry. In recent years, recognition has grown that governing bodies must either plan for the development or redevelopment of urban areas or permit them to become more congested, deteriorated, obsolescent, unhealthy, stagnant, inefficient and costly. As a result, at least 38 states now have remedial legislation similar to that of New Jersey. Jacobs & Levine, 'Redevelopment: Making Misused and Disused Land Available and Useable', 8 Hastings L.J. 241 (1957). Even if there were no express constitutional sanction for redevelopment of the type described in our statute, ample authority to do so might be found in the well of police power. Manifestly, the purposes to be served are intimately related to the public health, welfare and safety and so are consonant with both Federal and State Constitutions. Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 75 S.Ct. 98, 99 L.Ed. 27 (1954); Sorbino v. City of New Brunswick, 43 N.J.Super. 554, 129 A.2d 473 (Law Div.1957); Redfern v. Board of Com'rs of Jersey City, 137 N.J.L. 356, 59 A.2d 641 (E. & A.1948); Ryan v. Housing Authority of City of Newark, 125 N.J.L. 336, 15 A.2d 647 (Sup.Ct.1940); Romano v. Housing Authority of City of Newark, 123 N.J.L. 428, 10 A.2d 181 (Sup.Ct.1939), affirmed 124 N.J.L. 452, 12 A.2d 384 (E. & A.1940); Annotation, 44 A.L.R.2d 1414, 1420 (1955). As the former Supreme Court said in Mansfield & Swett, Inc., v. Town of West Orange, 120 N.J.L. 145, 150, 198 A. 225, 229 (Sup.Ct.1938):

'The state possesses the inherent authority--it antedates the Constitution--to resort, in the building and expansion of its community life, to such measures as may be necessary to secure the essential common material and moral needs. The public welfare is of prime importance; and the correlative restrictions upon individual rights--either of person or of property--are incidents of the social order, considered a negligible loss compared with the resultant advantages to the community as a whole. Planning confined to the common need is inherent in the authority to create the municipality itself. It is as old as government itself; it is of the very essence of civilized society. A comprehensive scheme of physical development is requisite to community efficiency and progress. * * * The police power of the state may be delegated to the state's municipal subdivisions created for the administration of local self-government, to be exerted whenever necessary for the general good and welfare. It reaches to all the great public needs; * * *.'

For an early forward looking expression in a related field, see Tide-water Company v. Coster, 18 N.J.Eq. 518 (E. & A.1866).

In the Berman case, supra, the United States Supreme Court dealt with the constitutionality of the 1945 Redevelopment Act of the District of Columbia--an act quite similar in scope to that now before us. Its validity was sustained with a broad expression of the vista of the police power:

'Public safety, public health, morality, peace and quiet, law and order--these are some of the more conspicuous examples of the traditional application of the police power to municipal affairs. Yet they merely illustrate the scope of the power and do not delimit it. * * * Miserable and disreputable housing conditions may do more than spread disease and crime and immorality. They may also suffocate the spirit by reducing the people who live there to the status of cattle. They may indeed make living an almost insufferable burden. They may also be an ugly sore, a blight on the community which robs it of charm, which makes it a place from which men turn. The misery of housing may despoil a community as an open sewer may ruin a river.

'We do not sit to determine whether a particular housing project is or is not desirable. The concept of the public welfare is broad and inclusive. * * * The values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within the power of the legislature to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well-balanced as well as carefully patrolled. In the present case, the Congress and its authorized agencies have made determinations that take into...