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Payments in condemnation bid - Judge tells Roanoke agency to pay $503,338 to family whose property it targeted
(Note: A good judge and a good decision, albeit a long process to get this decision.)
January 19, 2006
Times-Dispatch staff writer Roanoke Times-Dispatch P.O. Box 85333 Roanoke, Virginia 23293 804-649-6990 Fax: 804-819-1216 To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@timesdispatch.com
The ruling comes less than two months after a jury ordered the housing authority to pay Dr. Walter Claytor and various family members more than $281,000. Yesterday, the judge added attorney fees, additional legal costs and interest to arrive at the new sum of $503,338. "That's fair to both sides," Circuit Judge Jonathan Apgar said of the total he arrived at after listening to attorneys for the Claytors and the housing authority argue for nearly two hours. The authority also owes at least $195,000 to its attorney. On November 15, a five-member jury found that the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority owed the Claytors more than $281,000 in compensation because the authority targeted the family's land for condemnation for two decades, from 1978 to 1998. The agency wanted the land -- the site of a medical clinic, apartment complex, gas station, two garages, several small stores and a grocery -- as part of an urban renewal project. The authority never seized the family's 1.07-acre block in the Gainsboro neighborhood, but Apgar ruled that the constant threat of a land grab constituted a temporary taking. Walter Claytor testified that the threat of condemnation prevented the family from finding tenants for its rental properties or selling the land. Yesterday's court hearing focused on how much interest the authority owed the Claytors. The family's attorney, Joe Waldo of Norfolk, argued for 7 percent yearly from 1998 through 2005. Daniel Brown, attorney for the housing authority, argued that no interest was due. Apgar ruled that the authority owed interest, but not 7 percent. He cut the rate to 3.5 percent, awarding the family $70,873 in interest, a sum that is part of the $503,338 total. The Claytor family has owned the block since 1910. In 1976, city officials marked the neighborhood for redevelopment, and the authority notified the Claytors it would use its powers of eminent domain to obtain their property. In 1978, the authority tried to sell the Claytors' land to a local church -- even though it had not acquired the property. Though the deal fell through, the authority did not abandon plans to condemn the Claytors' land until 1998. Yesterday, Walter Claytor left the courtroom saying the authority would have done better financially if it had negotiated with him instead of forcing him to go to court to get compensation. "They just wouldn't listen." Brown said he does not know if the authority's governing board will appeal the ordered payment.
Copyright 2006, Times-Dispatch. |