Forcing sales County Judge wants to use eminent domain for parking space
Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008
Washington County Judge Jerry Hunton told Quorum Court members Thursday night that he is thinking about exercising eminent domain on property near the courthouse in order meet the parking needs of county government.
Hunton is targeting six properties at College Avenue and Spring Street near First Christian Church in Fayetteville to purchase to build a parking lot or deck. Each of the six properties has a house on it that would have to be razed.
Eminent domain is the power of government to take private property for a public use, even if the property owner objects. The Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution allows the government to take the property if the taking is for a public use and the owner is justly compensated for the loss, which usually means receiving fair-market value for the property.
"It's not something I really want to do," Hunton told Quorum Court members. "It's something I feel like I may have to do."
He said he will take a "straw vote"of Quorum Court members in a few days to determine if they favor the proposal to condemn the properties. They must appropriate money to pay the property owners, he said. That amount is unknown at this time, but he said he would have an appraisal of the property done if the Quorum Court agrees to the eminent domain. There was little comment from the Quorum Court about the proposal.
He said he has been in discussions with the church about building parking the county and the church could share, with the church using it on weekends.
But it would require exercising eminent domain to obtain the land needed. Specifically, it would force the condemning of six properties.
Hunton said it is his responsibility to act in the county's interest and make tough decisions.
"Another job of the county judge is to make sure we don't give away money," he said, referring to the purchase of the properties.
He said the two issues are obtaining the property that is needed for the county and doing so at a price that is fair to the taxpayers.
"I am in no way, shape or form excited about using eminent domain," he said.
He said since he is leaving office, he can do things that somebody not trying to be re-elected can do. Tim Smith commented during citizen discussion time at the end of the meeting that he does not understand this thinking.
He said elected officials should be accountable to voters.
Hunton during the meeting provided Quorum Court members with a map of the six properties, which face College Avenue, forming an "L"shape around the church. Part of the property to be used for the parking lot or deck is owned by the church, which is not one of the parcels to be condemned as part of Hunton's eminent domain proposal.
The property owners whose property is to be condemned under the proposal are 4 th Circuit Judge Mary Ann Gunn, who owns the house currently occupied by the Public Defender's Office, which plans to move to the Terminella Building across the street by the first of next year; Paul Gayner Properties; RBS Investments, which owns two of the parcels; Charles A. Stutte and Sharman Sturchio.
In an interview after the meeting, Hunton said he had hired George Faucette, a real estate agent, to contact the property owners. There were ideas of prices discussed, Hunton said.
Based on that, Hunton decided to talk abut eminent domain.
Gunn and Gayner would probably be willing to negotiate, he said, while Stutte and RBS were question marks. Sturchio, he said, is adamantly opposed.
Hunton's proposal includes a short-term parking solution if the property is condemned: Rehabilitate the existing parking deck to provide spaces for 200 cars and build a single-level parking lot to accommodate 195 vehicles. This would create 395 spaces, and the 195 spaces could be used while repair of the existing parking deck takes place.
Engineers with McGoodwin Williams & Yates of Fayetteville have estimated the cost of repairing the existing parking deck at $ 850, 000. They have also suggested that repairs can be made in phases by isolating work areas to be completed before moving to the next area.
Hunton said the "clock is ticking on the parking deck issue."
"We don't have the luxury of having months and months and months to negotiate," he said.
"You don't have to be unfair to the property owners," he said.
But he said he does not see taking property worth a certain amount and paying more for it just to negotiate.
He said he would be perfectly willing not to exercise eminent domain if the Quorum Court is against it.
He told Quorum Court members that the county needs somewhere to go with its parking, and this is his final proposal to add parking before he leaves office. His recent proposal was to lease property and build a parking deck on land belonging to St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Its vestry voted against pursuing the idea further after a few weeks of discussion about it earlier this year.
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