Case Summary:

In the lower court, Poppleton Now Community Association, Inc. and six individual Poppleton residents sued La Cite Development, LLC, several related developer entities and their principal, current and former Baltimore City officials (including the Mayor, City Council, Housing Authority, and former Mayor Sheila Dixon), alleging that a 2006 Land Disposition and Development Agreement giving La Cité 13.8 acres in the Poppleton Urban Renewal Area—much of it to be assembled by eminent domain—was an unconstitutional taking and violated their equal protection and due process rights, as well as constituting private nuisance and unjust enrichment, because it indefinitely transferred valuable land in a historically Black neighborhood to a private developer, generated delays and blight, and involved later side payments of $260,000 and $550 ...