ALBANY – The state can use its power of eminent domain to acquire the rest of the property Columbia University needs for a major expansion into West Harlem, New York’s highest court decided unanimously yesterday.
The Court of Appeals, in reversing an Appellate Division, First Department, decision blocking the use of condemnation, ruled that the state did not unreasonably find that the West Harlem area to be taken over by the $6.3 billion Columbia expansion is “blighted” for purposes of eminent domain.
