Download Magazine - Levin College of Law - University of Florida

DAVID GRUNFELD/THE TIMES-PICAYUNEPerhaps no city stands out more vividlyas an example of this than New Orleans. Forcenturies considered the South’s most elegantand prosperous city, New Orleans had fallenon hard times by the time Hurricane Katrinaplowed through in 2005. Already adrift inurban blight before the storm, New Orleansfound herself choking on it afterwards.“Before joining NORA, ‘blight’ wasmerely a legal concept to me — somethingthat I recalled talking about in ProfessorHunt’s preservation law seminar, ProfessorPerea’s constitutional law class or professorsNicholas or Juergensmeyer’s land use classwhile studying eminent domain cases,” saidJohn T. Marshall (JD 97), a project managerfor the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority(NORA). “That perception changedwhen I joined NORA. New Orleans is a cityof almost incomparable historic beauty andcharm, but it has suffered from nearly a halfcenturyof population loss — and, as familieshave moved away or people have passedaway, increasing numbers of homes have becomeforgotten.”NORA, formerly called the CommunityImprovement Agency, was created by statelaw in 1968 to “eliminate and prevent thespread of slums and blight.” Its principallegal tool to accomplish this is acquisitionof abandoned and blighted properties usingeminent domain — a process called expropriation.Historically under-funded and politicallytroubled, NORA played only a minor role inNew Orleans’ early redevelopment plans, butin response to the vast devastation wroughtby hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, thecity government breathed new life into thetiny agency in early 2007. Money was infusedinto the organization, its governingboard was expanded and the state legislaturewas pressed by the city to pass laws increasingthe agency’s ability to assemble land.For Marshall, NORA’s expansion wouldcreate an opportunity to use his educationand legal skills to help the city in its redevelopmentefforts, but his career path to NORAisn’t one he anticipated. After graduatingfrom the Levin College of Law with honorsin 1997, he clerked with U.S. MagistrateJudge Elizabeth A. Jenkins (JD 76) of theU.S. District Court for the Middle Districtof Florida in Tampa, Fla. In 1999, Marshalljoined the Holland & Knight firm as an associatein its Tampa office, where he gainedexperience working with local governmentsand businesses on zoning and growth managementissues. He was promoted to partnerin 2006.In September of 2007, Marshall was oneof 25 mid-career professionals awarded aRockefeller Foundation Fellowship in conjunctionwith the University of Pennsylvania’sCenter for Urban Redevelopment Excellence(CUREx). As part of his fellowship,Marshall, along with two other fellows, wasselected to work for NORA, an agency thefoundation had identified as a Gulf Coast entitywhose work it wished to support. Marshall’sfellowship is funded through Marchof 2010.“Urban redevelopment work is fascinatingbecause it draws on so many differentdisciplines, like tax law, property law, constitutionallaw, land use and zoning law,” Marshallsaid. “There’s no question in my mindthat I would not have received the RockefellerFoundation fellowship and this opportunityto serve in New Orleans were it not formy professors at UF Law and my mentors atHolland & Knight, because they taught methat revitalizing cities presents many hiddenchallenges and obstacles beyond designing amore attractive streetscape.”AFTER THE STORMIn 2000, the U.S. Census reported 27,000abandoned properties in New Orleans. In theaftermath of Katrina that number balloonedto nearly 72,000 according to Greater NewOrleans Community Data Center estimates.Reasons vary for why properties in thecity were abandoned. For many, back taxesowed on the property amounted to more thanits market value. Others were abandoned afterhurricane storm damage. Still other properties,passed down through the generationswithout the benefit of formal deed transfers,are mired in convoluted questions of inheritancewhere many heirs — often the grandchildrenor great-grandchildren of a deceasedowner of record — may have a claim but nonehave maintained the property taxes. Theseabandoned properties pose serious health andsafety threats to New Orleans’ residents andcause property values to sink.Desperate to save itself from drowningin debt and squalor, the City of New Orleansexpanded use of eminent domain to seize andrehabilitate abandoned and blighted properties.The city’s goal was to wield its eminentdomain powers through NORA to clean upthe city, build new homes for its returningDiaspora and jump-start the city’s economicredevelopment by returning real estate tocommerce. Marshall joined NORA just as theagency ramped up its expropriation efforts.“The city saw that NORA would haveto play an important role in addressing thecity’s blight problem,” said Marshall. “Theconsensus among policymakers and localelected officials was that NORA’s expropriationpowers could serve as a critical tool tocombat urban blight and could dramaticallyincrease the number of public health andsafety expropriations.”Marshall added that before NORA expropriatesa property, the agency first offersto purchase the property from the owner ofrecord for its appraised value. This involvesproviding the last known owner, or the owner’sheirs, with notice of NORA’s intent totake the property.“The process also includes filing a civilaction in the state’s trial courts and, ultimately,trying the case before the court,” Marshallsaid. “The interests of the owners and potentialheirs are represented at trial by a courtappointedattorney or ‘curator.’ ”John T. Marshall(right) speaks withGentilly-PontchartrainNeighborhood Associationmembers EmanuelEsteves Jr. (center) andVictor Gordon (left) infront of the GentillyWoods Shopping Centerin March, 2008.FALL 2008 31