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My question is unrelated to investing and more to do with a road construction project that the city will be starting next year in front of my primary residence. The road project with the city has me at the city’s mercy due to eminent domain, and I would prefer to come with a solution we all can agree on with minimal attorney fees.
With many in-person visits and email exchanges with the city’s assistant director of engineering, we have come to an purchase price for the additional land the need to widen the road to a four-lane roadway.
This agreement consists of removal of some trees and assurance that the stormwater calculations are correct, and if any erosion happens, the city will be responsible for repairs if there is any damage to my property due to the stormwater drainage along my property line.
The deal ends up being an even trade for the land the city will purchase from me that the total the city will be charging me to build the new road project.
My concern is the city handed me a set of generic real estate documents to sign. I figured there would be a purchase agreement stating what we agreed on.
Has anyone dealt with land purchases within in city limits on your primary residence?
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Rob, cities in my state are notorious for pulling rip-off deals on homeowners, whether low-balling the cost of eminent domain confiscation (which often wind up in a civil court fight), or mandating that any damage done to your plumbing by the city’s water supply maintenance people (due to over-pressuring your water lines upon turning your water pressure back on) is on YOUR nickel if you don’t have an expensive pressure regulator valve installed (that you never knew was needed). Other such rip-offs include lobbying the state legislature to prevent city residents from having the right to vote on city-hatched property tax increases. Another classic rip-off was our local police chief complaining that if the state kills the red light camera revenue generator racket (that causes more rear end collisions when the yellow light time is set conveniently too short), the cop shop’s loss of “education outreach” money might be cut short.Jerry Pournelle’s two iron laws of bureaucracy are relevant here:
1. In the beginning, all bureaucracies are staffed with mission-dedicated people.
2. Eventually, those bureaucracies are taken over by people whose obsession is growth of that organization — by ever increasing its income, variety and scope of missions, and explosion of staff to be paid and managed, which means higher and higher salaries for management.
My observation, that Jerry Pournelle didn’t make, is that those bureaucracies will fight tooth and nail to fend off all possible restrictions on Group #2‘s ambitions.
With those motives and city histories of rip-off tactics, what do you think your chances are of receiving their “generic” contract (think: first offer to suckers) with terms that represent a fair deal for you? Never mind that the assistant director of engineering you mentioned may not even have the ultimate authority to set final pricing or terms that you’re being offered.
Eminent domain fights are a special kind of battle that most attorneys have never faced, so you want one with good experience in that arena. Your local tax guy or family law guy doesn’t cut it in this specialty game.
Good luck in your struggle for the best possible outcomes.
–Dee
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Rob, one more thought. I’ve seen what’s happened in my city after the population exploded and sleepy little one-lane-each-way Main Street was widened to a two-lanes-each-way 24-hour roaring superhighway. Most houses on both sides applied for zoning changes so they could sell out to businesses and then move far away from the constant roar of traffic. The few houses left along that Main Street are now occupied by the elderly (probably some with bad hearing) whose children have long since left the nest. The increased and never-ending noise, the inherent dangers of that much traffic for nearby children, the shock to property values without selling out, and the narrowing of front yard space would all forecast a permanent and undesirable environment for residential living. I can’t begin to imagine how just one competent appraiser would forecast how such property values would change. I’m thinking it would take a residential appraiser to come up with a number for the residential case, and a commercial appraiser to forecast what the value would be for the re-zoned commercial case.That’s a lot to factor in to a settlement “deal” with the city to compensate for what may very well ruin your location for residential living. I had the misfortune a long time ago to rent in a house on such a super highway, and vowed never to make that mistake again.
Again, good luck.
–Dee
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