Tue, Jan 17, 2012
Landowner Wins Settlement After Claiming Undervaluation
Eminent Domain laws allow government agencies to condemn private
land for projects which benefit the public, but as one Indiana
county has learned the hard way, taking more than is needed, or
fudging on the fair value of that land, can get expensive. An
attorney for a woman whose land was taken for a runway expansion
says he'll file for a judgment to collect $865,000 in compensation
won by the landowner in court.
Attorney John W. Mead tells the Jeffersonville News and Tribune
that the proposed extension of the runway 18/36 at Clark County
Regional Airport to 7,000 feet required the taking of only a
portion of Margaret Dreyer's 72 acres, but the Clark County Board
of Aviation Commissioners took the whole thing. The county says it
acted to avoid leaving the landowner with only a swampy,
unmarketable remnant of the plot, and that the FAA also advised
taking the whole parcel.
A bigger issue was a wide disparity between the county's
appraisal of what it called "farmland," and what the owner's
appraiser called "light industrial." The Eminent Domain law
requires considering use the “highest and best use” of
the property in determining its value. The News and Tribune reports
the difference between the two appraisals was almost $890,000. The
jury decided on a number in the middle, $865,000, and the county
has already paid $200,000 of that. It now much find the rest, plus
$24,035 in attorney fees, and will have to pay interest of up to
$194 per day until the case is settled.
The county reportedly finished last year with a surplus of $1.78
million.
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