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Sunday, January 23, 2005

Ind. Law - Taking private property for public development (or not)

A fascinating story by Chris Poynter in the Louisville Courier Journal today contrasts the way Indiana and Kentucky deal with land located in the proposed route of a highway or bridge, with Indiana coming out the better. The headline: "Land develops in bridge's path; Kentucky waits - Delay might hike cost of Ohio River project." Some quotes from the beginning of the lengthy story:

Greg and Jacqueline Evans are building their dream home — a stone and shingle house worth at least $1 million on a secluded, 3-acre lot near the Ohio River.

There's just one problem — it sits directly in the path of a planned East End bridge route connecting Louisville and Southern Indiana.

They've owned the land since 1996, six years before the bridge route was chosen, and had always planned to build there. Last fall, they began construction — in part, the Evanses say, because the state has given them no choice.

When the Evans family asked the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet last year to buy its land, the cabinet declined, saying the state doesn't do early buyouts.

"It's either sit on the land and have a piece of property that had no real value or use, or go ahead and build on it and live there for as long as we could," Greg Evans said.

Since the routes for the Ohio River Bridges Project were announced in July 2002, the Indiana Department of Transportation has made offers totaling $3.1 million on about 60 acres in the bridge path near Utica, Ind., in an attempt to protect it from development and hold down the project's cost.

Kentucky, however, hasn't tried to purchase any land, in large part, state highway officials say, because of the state's restrictive law regarding condemnation.

The law says that property owners may repurchase their land — at the same price the government paid for it, even if the value has increased substantially — if it's not used for highway construction within eight years of the initial sale. It also says that if the former landowner doesn't want to buy back the property, then the state must sell it at public auction.

Kentucky officials say they won't begin acquiring land for the Ohio River Bridges Project until the design and engineering work is completed. That means no property will be bought before fall 2006, and then only if federal money is available, said Bill Gulick, bridges manager for Kentucky.

The result is that development or building improvements occurring in the bridge routes could raise the cost of the $1.9 billion project, which already will require the purchase of more than 200 residences and businesses to build a downtown and an East End bridge and to rebuild Spaghetti Junction.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 23, 2005 03:08 PM
Posted to Indiana Law