ATLANTIC CITY — The owner of a rooming house in the heart of the Tourism District is fighting the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority and the city in court over a technicality that could result in the closing of the property.
A complaint filed by Michael Scanlon, owner of the house at 1401 Memorial Ave., against the CRDA and Atlantic City claims the owner’s right to due process is being violated and potential enforcement would cause tenants to be evicted without cause.
CRDA declined to comment on pending legal matters. A call to the city Solicitor’s Office was not immediately returned.
Scott E. Becker, a Pleasantville attorney representing Scanlon, said he understands what CRDA and the city are trying to do with respect to cleaning up the Tourism District by ridding it of an overabundance of rooming houses. Becker said the issue is how the two entities are going about it. By denying the rooming house a license to operate, the value of the property is being drastically, and intentionally, reduced, Becker said.
People are also reading…
“It’s a valid effort on their part to clean up the Tourism District,” Becker said. “The problem is, after having uses approved and certified by the city and CRDA, my client is at risk of having the property devalued in order for it to be acquired at a reduced value. That’s not right.”
Scanlon’s complaint alleges violations issued by CRDA are in direct contrast to a land-use certificate issued by the city in 1999 and that the state agency is barred from altering the terms of prior approvals. Scanlon purchased the property in 1999.
After taking over zoning and land use in the Tourism District, CRDA issued a certificate of land-use compliance for the property in 2012.
In a filed motion to dismiss, CRDA claims the property violates land development rules in the city’s defined Tourism District — over which the authority has statutorily mandated control and where new regulations went into effect Jan. 2 — and a previous certificate of nonconformity from the Atlantic City Zoning Board of Adjustment. In 1996, the board entered the certificate limiting the number of apartments to one and 22 rooms, accompanied by a court order.
CRDA issued a Notice of Violation and Order to Abate to Scanlon on April 24. The authority alleges the rooming house’s 22 rooms and three apartments violate the permitted use of the property and 1401 Memorial should abide by the parameters found in the certificate of nonconformity.
Without the proper certificate of land-use compliance from the CRDA, the city will not reissue an annual mercantile license to operate the rooming house, city Licensing and Inspections Director Dale Finch told The Press last week during a meeting regarding the city’s 43 licensed rooming-house properties.
Scanlon filed his complaint May 25.
Becker said the matter was put on a 90-day hold in August in hopes the parties could come to an agreement.
Scanlon owns two other rooming houses in the city at 169 S. Tennessee Ave. and 105 S. California Ave. On May 1, CRDA issued two violation notices for the property on Tennessee Avenue for similar alleged offenses, which are also addressed in Scanlon’s complaint.
According to a counter-statement of material facts filed by Becker on Sept. 17, CRDA has been engaged in negotiations with Scanlon for the state authority to purchase all of his properties in the Tourism District.
