Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy applauded yesterday's Supreme Court decision securing municipalities' broad rights to use eminent domain. But state Sen. Jim Ferlo said he'd seek to carve out an exception in Pennsylvania.

That's how controversial the government taking of private property for private uses is in Pittsburgh, nearly five years after the proposed Fifth and Forbes development made it a big issue.

Murphy said his administration has used the city's eminent domain power to take private property just once -- in its effort to remove the X-rated Garden Theater from the Central North Side. Litigation in that case is continuing.

But he said eminent domain was a key tool in convincing the Pittsburgh Wool Co. to make way for an expansion of H.J. Heinz Co. facilities, a move that he said,kept Heinz here and paved the way for Del Monte Foods Co.'s purchase of the facilities.

"There are 1,500 jobs here in Pittsburgh that wouldn't have been here if we had not had the ability to work with Heinz," Murphy said.

Eminent domain "is a great equalizer when you're having a conversation with people," Murphy said. "It's about having a fair conversation and not being held up by people who do not have any interest in the community, but only have an interest in putting more money in their pockets."

In 1999, Murphy held out the possibility of using eminent domain to seize some of 60 buildings along Fifth and Forbes avenues, Wood Street and Market Square, Downtown. He proposed turning the district over to Chicago-based Urban Retail Properties for redevelopment.

A key foe was then-city Councilman Ferlo.

Ferlo, D-Highland Park, called yesterday's decision an "erosion of private property rights."

He said he hopes to submit legislation in September that would curb eminent domain. The tool would still be available for clearing properties for schools, roads and public buildings, he said, but municipalities wouldn't be able to use it to clear the way for private development unless the site was in a state of "squalor."

Property owners in the Fifth-and-Forbes corridor vigorously opposed any takings, and the proposal became a potential election issue as the 2001 Democratic mayoral primary approached. Murphy abandoned the $522 million plan in November 2000 when key retailer Nordstrom opted out.

Yesterday's decision "is a disaster for small business in this country and for homeowners," said Bernie Lynch, former executive director of the Market Square Association, and a foe of Murphy's plan. "I think it's a really sad day for what it means to live in America."

Joan Kimmel, a longtime member of the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, on the other hand, said the federal decision may not lead to the removal of the Garden Theater, but that it was still good news that "the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated it's likely to support communities."

The Garden, an adult movie house on West North Avenue, remains the lone obstacle to progress in the partially complete Federal-North development, said Joel Aaronson, attorney for the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The theater's owner, George Androtsakis, perceived he was being singled out and cited First Amendment rights in appealing a 2003 Commonwealth Court decision that sided with the eminent domain advocates. The state Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal last year but has not yet ruled in the case.