[Tee]

While I realize that the project may be needed, I just feel that the owners of the property need to be compensated FAR ABOVE assessed value. Like you said these are businesses- some of which may be shut down. They have an established presence and clientèle that are worth more to them than the assessed value of their property. What we fail to understand here is that assessed value includes no consideration for loss of business/income.

For example:

You take ten or twenty feet of the front of DQ and pay them the going rate for the square footage that was taken. However, the business now has little or no parking as a result, or has to shut down their drive-thru (DQ) so the impact to the business is very substantial. Do you think DQ could rebuild their building in a manner so as to re-establish their drive-thru for the compensation of a ten foot sliver off the front of the lot based upon the city's assessed value of the property?

I am just saying...the assessed value? com'n...we have to consider economical impact to the businesses for restructuring or relocation- it sure the hell wont be cover by the assessed value of a 10 x50 ft piece of land.

Eminant domain is a horrible thing. Let's not resort to taking their property until we have fairly compensated them for the whole impact on their business now and into the future. And even then, since we are forcibly taking their property, their needs to be a little extra for that. It's only right.


Let me tell you a little story. I used to have a detail business on the corner of 1st and Trail- in the NAPA building. The City needed to take a sliver off the South-East corner to make a merger right lane. To do so, they took our entire parking lot. Now the owner of that land (Jerry Phelps) got far above the assesed value for the property ($60,000). Still, we closed down our detail business and the other businesses(NAPA) have suffered for the past 20 years as a result of having no parking lot. Do you think that $60,000 (about 5 times the assesed value of the property in sq ft) would fairly compensate me for moving/re-establishing my business and for the impact of the other business in the area that now have no parking lot?

Additionally "It ought to hurt BIGTIME for any governement to resort to Eminent Domain to forcably take our property from us."