By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- On the heels of a victory by city officials in their legal battle with James Lichoulas Jr., the downtown property owner has filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals attempting to block them from taking much of his Appleton Mills complex by eminent domain.
Lichoulas' lawyers filed a notice of appeal last week in U.S. District Court, according to court documents.
As recently as June, the federal appeals court refused to modify the property's title by noting that its rightful ownership is in dispute -- something that could have complicated the Hamilton Canal District project.
Appeals-court judges denied that motion by Lichoulas' attorneys in a decision on June 5.
City councilors voted to take Lichoulas' land in April 2006, paying the property owner $2.5 million as compensation. Lichoulas argues that amount was inadequate.
He and and his attorneys also have alleged that the Federal Power Act of 1920 prohibits the City Council from using its eminent-domain powers to take the nearly 7-acre swath of land in question because a portion of it was licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 1986 for use as a hydroelectric plant.
In a decision on March 30, however, U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel sided with the city and dismissed Lichoulas' federal case outright. Federal appeals-court judges have yet to rule on Zobel's decision.
The land in dispute comprises nearly half of what city planners call the Hamilton Canal District, including the area slated to be occupied by a $175 million state judicial center.
If Lichoulas prevails, he could hold up the real-estate transactions necessary for both projects to proceed.
Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last March terminated Lichoulas' license to operate the Appleton Mills hydroelectric power project, which forms the basis of his federal claim, as that facility is non-operational and has fallen into ruin along with most of the rest of the dilapidated mill complex.
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun on Friday, August 22, 2008