Eminent domain should be saved as a final resort
BY MARIANNE CLAY
No one knows what the lawsuits stemming from York County's unsuccessful attempt to create "Susquehanna Heritage Park" through eminent domain will total. But the financial fiasco sounds a warning to other communities.
"The county made a big mistake in seizing land for a park by eminent domain and we've got to find a way to extract ourselves from our legal mess." county Commissioner Chris Reilly said.
The public taking of private land, he believes, should be reserved for essential services, such as roads and schools, and only as a last resort.
While Reilly and the other two commissioners now in office never supported the public taking of private land for a park, they are stuck with its fallout.
"We're trying to figure out what it's going to take -- what number is needed -- to put this horrible mess behind us," Reilly said. "The guess estimate is $15 million to $30 million."
So how did York County get into this unenviable situation?
In the summer of 2002, Lower Windsor Twp. officials, joined by planners, politicians and preservationists, began considering turning a large farm just south of Wrightsville into a park. The township wanted to preserve the farm's expanse of open space and feared if parcels of the farm continued to be sold and developed for housing, the township's costs, especially for schools, would soar.
Ambitious and confident, the park organizers figured, if necessary, they had the constitutional right to take the land they wanted through eminent domain. Specifically, they wanted Lauxmont Farms, a site known for its natural beauty, acres of rolling pasture, a stone mansion, a panoramic vista of the valley and access to the Susquehanna River. And they believed they knew how to get the land and get rid of the Kohr family, whose 1996 reorganization following bankruptcy required them to sell parcels of the 1,000-plus-acre farm they have lived and worked on since the family purchased it in 1973.
The park organizers figured out everything, except public sentiment.
Some residents questioned the need for another recreational area when just up the hill sits the 85-acre Sam Lewis State Park. Others worried about the high cost of creating and maintaining what was proposed -- a "magnificent heritage, recreation and scenic park unlike any other place in our county, region or state." It was to include a museum, a "world-class heritage education" visitors center and a trail to the river.
The opposition to taking someone's farm to create a park was so great that county commissioners Doug Kilgore and Lori Mitrick lost in last year's primary. Voters returned Steve Chronister, the lone commissioner to oppose the taking, and elected Reilly and Doug Hoke to replace Kilgore and Mitrick.
"Not offering the Kohr family fair market value for their land right away was a huge mistake and now we're stuck dealing with it," Reilly said. "Certainly this land is unique, significant and valuable, and we're all for the creation of parks and land preservation, but not this way. Trying to take their land by eminent domain for a park was a huge mistake and shows government at its worst."
Right before Christmas and prior to the current commissioners taking office, the Kohr family filed a lawsuit against York County stating that the commissioners' efforts to take their land by eminent domain deepened the family's financial problems. Who, after all, wants to buy land that might be seized through eminent domain?
The suit also alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy to get the land for considerably less than market value and for a prolonged harassment campaign against the family that eventually drove their mother, the late Laura Kohr, to suicide. The lawsuit cites York County and its commissioners as defendants and says the Kohrs are seeking an unnamed amount in damages.
No wonder the current commissioners are bracing themselves, as they expect the county will either have to raise taxes or float a bond issue.
"Those who said the county could acquire this land and create this park without spending taxpayers' money were out and out lying," Reilly said. "Their plan to cobble together grants and shift around various pockets of government money was just a ridiculous game of semantics."
So far, the county has spent about $8.5 million. A second property owner, Peter Alecxih, who owns and operates a small residential construction firm in Columbia, has received the biggest chunk to date, $7.5 million, for his 79 acres taken by the county in 2004. Alecxih believes the land, now marked by a small parking lot and a sign, "Highpoint Scenic Vista and Recreational Area," is worth at least $17 million.
Unless he and the county settle, he will present his case before a jury trial on July 7, four years after Mitrick and Kilgore began the process to seize his parcel for the park. No one knows what the trial's outcome will be, but the county will be responsible for paying him any additional sum the trial might determine for the land plus interest.
In addition, the county has paid and will continue to pay hefty legal bills. Since commissioners Kilgore and Mitrick got behind the project in 2004, the county has spent $805,764 in legal fees, according to county Solicitor Michael Flannelly. He notes money was also spent on appraisals, but these fees were either incorporated within the lawyers' bills or never billed to the county.
So what's next?
"Limiting the county's liability, and doing what is right for Peter Alecxih, the Kohr family and for York County, and for all of us, as taxpayers," Reilly said.
Expensive, time-consuming and fraught with hard feelings, York County's experience offers a harsh lesson in overreaching with the use of eminent domain.
BY MARIANNE CLAY
No one knows what the lawsuits stemming from York County's unsuccessful attempt to create "Susquehanna Heritage Park" through eminent domain will total. But the financial fiasco sounds a warning to other communities.
"The county made a big mistake in seizing land for a park by eminent domain and we've got to find a way to extract ourselves from our legal mess." county Commissioner Chris Reilly said.
The public taking of private land, he believes, should be reserved for essential services, such as roads and schools, and only as a last resort.
While Reilly and the other two commissioners now in office never supported the public taking of private land for a park, they are stuck with its fallout.
"We're trying to figure out what it's going to take -- what number is needed -- to put this horrible mess behind us," Reilly said. "The guess estimate is $15 million to $30 million."
So how did York County get into this unenviable situation?
In the summer of 2002, Lower Windsor Twp. officials, joined by planners, politicians and preservationists, began considering turning a large farm just south of Wrightsville into a park. The township wanted to preserve the farm's expanse of open space and feared if parcels of the farm continued to be sold and developed for housing, the township's costs, especially for schools, would soar.
Ambitious and confident, the park organizers figured, if necessary, they had the constitutional right to take the land they wanted through eminent domain. Specifically, they wanted Lauxmont Farms, a site known for its natural beauty, acres of rolling pasture, a stone mansion, a panoramic vista of the valley and access to the Susquehanna River. And they believed they knew how to get the land and get rid of the Kohr family, whose 1996 reorganization following bankruptcy required them to sell parcels of the 1,000-plus-acre farm they have lived and worked on since the family purchased it in 1973.
The park organizers figured out everything, except public sentiment.
Some residents questioned the need for another recreational area when just up the hill sits the 85-acre Sam Lewis State Park. Others worried about the high cost of creating and maintaining what was proposed -- a "magnificent heritage, recreation and scenic park unlike any other place in our county, region or state." It was to include a museum, a "world-class heritage education" visitors center and a trail to the river.
The opposition to taking someone's farm to create a park was so great that county commissioners Doug Kilgore and Lori Mitrick lost in last year's primary. Voters returned Steve Chronister, the lone commissioner to oppose the taking, and elected Reilly and Doug Hoke to replace Kilgore and Mitrick.
"Not offering the Kohr family fair market value for their land right away was a huge mistake and now we're stuck dealing with it," Reilly said. "Certainly this land is unique, significant and valuable, and we're all for the creation of parks and land preservation, but not this way. Trying to take their land by eminent domain for a park was a huge mistake and shows government at its worst."
Right before Christmas and prior to the current commissioners taking office, the Kohr family filed a lawsuit against York County stating that the commissioners' efforts to take their land by eminent domain deepened the family's financial problems. Who, after all, wants to buy land that might be seized through eminent domain?
The suit also alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy to get the land for considerably less than market value and for a prolonged harassment campaign against the family that eventually drove their mother, the late Laura Kohr, to suicide. The lawsuit cites York County and its commissioners as defendants and says the Kohrs are seeking an unnamed amount in damages.
No wonder the current commissioners are bracing themselves, as they expect the county will either have to raise taxes or float a bond issue.
"Those who said the county could acquire this land and create this park without spending taxpayers' money were out and out lying," Reilly said. "Their plan to cobble together grants and shift around various pockets of government money was just a ridiculous game of semantics."
So far, the county has spent about $8.5 million. A second property owner, Peter Alecxih, who owns and operates a small residential construction firm in Columbia, has received the biggest chunk to date, $7.5 million, for his 79 acres taken by the county in 2004. Alecxih believes the land, now marked by a small parking lot and a sign, "Highpoint Scenic Vista and Recreational Area," is worth at least $17 million.
Unless he and the county settle, he will present his case before a jury trial on July 7, four years after Mitrick and Kilgore began the process to seize his parcel for the park. No one knows what the trial's outcome will be, but the county will be responsible for paying him any additional sum the trial might determine for the land plus interest.
In addition, the county has paid and will continue to pay hefty legal bills. Since commissioners Kilgore and Mitrick got behind the project in 2004, the county has spent $805,764 in legal fees, according to county Solicitor Michael Flannelly. He notes money was also spent on appraisals, but these fees were either incorporated within the lawyers' bills or never billed to the county.
So what's next?
"Limiting the county's liability, and doing what is right for Peter Alecxih, the Kohr family and for York County, and for all of us, as taxpayers," Reilly said.
Expensive, time-consuming and fraught with hard feelings, York County's experience offers a harsh lesson in overreaching with the use of eminent domain.