I've talked before about the fairy-tale suburb where I live. Green spaces, planned development, bike trails, city parks and pools, lots of fertilizer. Well, there's a battle brewing over the location of a new interchange to access the 'industrial' part of the city. Here's the full story...I'll give you the brief version.
The son of a local farmer was bequeathed the family's 42 acre farm at the corner of a major highway and a local road. The city is planning a new industrial park/technology center nearby (think Research Triangle Institute for those familiar with North Carolina) and needs part of the farmers land to improve the interchange. The city is preparing an eminent domain proposal for 10 acres of the farm to enhance the interchange to attract more business to the technology center and increase tax revenues for the city.
So far this sounds like a classic eminent domain battle and even has a Kelo flavor to it. That is, eminent domain is being invoked to increase tax revenues for the city. But there's a twist. The farm owner is fighting the eminent domain taking because he is in negotiations with a private developer who values the 42 acres at $450,000 per acre. That's almost $19,000,000. But, if the interchange improvements go through, the developer is prepared to back out (because access from the major highway will be reduced) and the value of the land is estimated to fall to $200,000 per acre. That's a $10.5M loss for the farm owner. Yep, I'd fight the eminent domain proposal too.
