Juan Carlos Carrasquel is fighting to keep his building as The City of Bloomington continues its attempt to acquire it.
In an objection filed Jan. 10, Carrasquel says the city is not allowed to amend its attempt to acquire his building through eminent domain because it “is now attempting to change facts because it lost at trial and the Court ruled in favor of Landowner [Carrasquel].”
Bloomington has been trying for months to take Carrasquel’s building through eminent domain to make room for the expansion of the proposed Fourth Street Parking Garage; however, Judge Holly Harvey ruled in December the city could not do so because the original proposal called for first floor retail space. That space would not be used exclusively for public use, so Bloomington could not legally take Carrasquel’s building.
Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton said Tuesday during an Ask The Mayor interview that he was surprised and disappointed with the ruling.
“It seems clear to me that a very large public garage is a public building,” he says. “And the fact that less than five percent was dedicated to commercial space because of a public law that [says] we want to see commercial space – we’re going to deal with it in the best way forward we can.”
The city’s new request, filed Dec. 30, scraps plans for ground floor retail and instead says the space will just be used as a parking garage.
The city had previously offered to buy Carrasquel’s building and give him a new space on the ground floor of the garage, but the objection filed on early this month points out that if the new space is only used as a garage, there will be no space for JuanSells to go.
“I’m hopeful this is going to be the end of it,” Carrasquel says. “And if it’s not, I’m fully prepared to continue to protect my rights, and I will fight until I have no air in my lungs or blood in my veins.”
He says now, he’s waiting for the judge to make a decision.
