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.

FMI: www.clarkregionalairport.com