Several property owners got temporary reprieves from Portage’s effort to acquire their lots using eminent domain when a Board of Public Works member spoke against the move for now.
Portage’s Redevelopment Commission, or RDC, recently voted to ask the board of works to begin the legal proceedings on three properties. City officials claim they offered a “fair market value” of $115,500, for a lot at 6320 Central Ave., owned by the adjacent AutoZone store, $120,800 for one at 6370 Central Ave., owned by Speedway gas station, and $103,650 for another privately owned parcel at 2305 Hamstrom Road.
The city said it has a public need for the parcels, with plans to use the two Central Avenue parcels to build a 100-spot parking lot for the downtown Founders Square area, said Colin Highlands, redevelopment administrator and project manager for the city.
The city wants to realign Hamstrom Road to make it safer for street department workers and visitors, and the property in question there would make that possible, Highlands said.
The RDC can request the board of works begin eminent domain proceedings and pay for the action, but the RDC does not have the authority to initiate the action.
According to Highlands, the RDC ordered two appraisals on each of the three properties and offered to pay the average of the two appraisals on each, what city officials believe to be “fair market value.” The owners rejected the city’s offers.
Highlands said the city, through the board of works, can initiate eminent domain proceedings if it deems it’s in “the public good.” Under the proceedings, the city can ask a judge to order another set of appraisals on the properties, and both parties — the city and the property owners — would have to agree on the average of the newly ordered appraisals.
Ron Necco, an official with the Indiana-Kentucky-Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters and a member of the board of works, said he was uncomfortable with the city’s plans for the Central Avenue properties and needed more information on the Hamstrom Road acquisition.
“I’m not personally a huge fan of (the eminent domain request),” Necco said. “Parking spots is not a safety issue.”
More Top Picks Ratings
Mayor James Snyder then moved to table the RDC’s request for eminent domain proceedings.
According to Highlands, the Hamstrom Road property owners and AutoZone rejected the city’s price offers, but Speedway wanted the city to make special exceptions to its ordinance on property setbacks before agreeing on a purchase price.
The city balked at Speedway’s request, fearing it would set “a dangerous precedent” on property owners trying to get special breaks in negotiating transactions with the city, Highlands said.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.