"This is very emotional:" Mount Pleasant residents upset about losing homes to Foxconn
MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Mount Pleasant residents whose homes are in danger of being bought up to make room for Foxconn’s $10 billion manufacturing complex voiced their concerns Tuesday night at a public hearing.
“We live there,” Roger Sturycz said. These are our homes like all the stories that we heard tonight. This is very emotional.”
Sturycz is one of many Mount Pleasant residents who will lose their homes if the full roughly 2,800- acre zone for Foxconn gets the green light.
Homes they say they built their lives and livelihood around for years.
“We’ve got a pool outside, a wonderful yard, some of the most beautiful sunsets you’ve ever seen in your life,” Joe Janicek said. “I also have a big garage there that I work on my trucks.”
By next week the village will already own 2/3 of the land needed. The final section hasn’t been acquired yet.
The Community Development Board is trying to use Wisconsin Statute 66.133(6) to acquire the remaining land. The statute would classify the homes as blighted areas.
“The court held that municipalities to condemn vacant land and sound-performing buildings that are located in a blighted area. The court noted that this statute specifically grants authority located in a blighted area and the authority includes property that is not itself blighted,” Mount Pleasant property acquisition attorney Alan Marcuvitz said.
Residents like Janicek argue their homes aren’t blighted at all and shouldn’t be taken away.
“How do you call a beautiful area blighted?” Janicek said.
The Community Development Authority set the perimeter of the zone Tuesday night. The Village Board will take up the issue again on April 17th.
Residents have 15 days to submit their concerns in writing about the project.