National Eminent Domain Blog : Eminent Domain Lawyer & Attorney : Ackerman Ackerman & Dynkowski : Michigan and Washington, DC

Post Trib

School officials were waiting for their attorneys to review the decision.

"(The resolution) is an option they have threatened to exercise in the past," said School Board President Nellie Moore. "If that's what they choose to do instead of a more amicable resolution, then I have no problem with that."

School district attorney Ragen Hatcher was less diplomatic.

"I would think they would've at least invited a representative from the school district to the meeting," Hatcher said of the Board of Works decision.

According to the city's resolution, the impasse comes after three years of "extraordinary good faith efforts" by the city and the airport to reach a deal with the schools.

"The action avoids any more delays to the timetable for the (runway) expansion," Curry said, "and now a court of law will determine the appropriate value of the land."

Why would a school system expect any different treatment than any other owner?  Governments rarely truly provide notice to the owners of property when it decides to utilize the eminent domain process.  However, the process in most States does require some attempt to negotiate prior to the filing of a condemnation complaint.  Indiana, where this taking is to occur, has a process.

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 Gary Post Tribune

But the School Board -- facing a fiscal deficit -- wants $3.75 million for the land. That's terribly unrealistic, even if the schools would choose to preserve the land and include it in its curriculum.

The School Board now is taking the insanity to a new level by spending $30,000 on an appraisal. It would appear the School Board knows acquisition of the land is vital is the Airport Authority, and as a result is demanding an outrageous price.

Litigating the matter isn't the answer. That will be the case if the two sides can't agree and the city proceeds with eminent domain, as it threatened last week.

We hope Mayor Rudy Clay steps in, brings the two sides to the table and issues the following mandate: Don't leave the room until you have settled the matter.

What is good for the airport is good for the city of Gary, including the schools. The airport remains the city's greatest hope for the future. Further delays would be unconscionable.

Often, we need to have the judicial system intervene on behalf of two behemoths, such as a city and an airport.  The Gary, Indiana situation above is not an exception.  The dispute involved federal funds to acquire land versus individual community vested tax dollars.  In the case of education funding, the tax dollars are usually derived from real estate assessments.  The Gary newspaper is simply way off base!

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Fosters Daily Democrat

Until September 2006, the option of expanding the middle school onto Alumni Field was believed to be off the table.

A deed restriction on the property — which was donated to the city by the Peirce family in 1913 with the stipulation that it remain a park — requires the city to go through eminent domain proceedings to use the property for anything else.

In the past, Peirce family heirs have fiercely objected to building on one of the last green spaces left in downtown Portsmouth and the city has largely left it alone.

In 2006, the School Board learned from the city attorney that lifting the deed restriction was a possibility. Discussions over the past two years have focused on keeping the school on Parrot Avenue, but until Tuesday, the School Board had not made a recommendation.

Tuesday, School Board members voted 8-1 to send a "preferred option" of building on the property, to the left of the current middle school on Parrott Avenue, onto the City Council. This decision will have to meet with the approval of the City Council before any eminent domain proceedings begin.

School board members will address the size, programming and other issues at a future workshop.

The taking of reversionary interests is like any other taking of a private interest.  Donors of property to the public frequently seek the return of the property if placed in a different use.  A tougher issue may be finding all the heirs almost one hundred years later in order to obtain the releases.

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