ICC: Washington Post story

Bid to Get Land for Connector Escalates
Maryland Sues Some Property Owners to Condemn Sites
By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 28, 2007; C01

More than a third of the Montgomery County property owners who must
sell land for the first leg of the intercounty connector have declined
the state's initial offers and are facing court proceedings to condemn
their homes, yards or other parcels.

The Maryland State Highway Administration has used eminent domain laws
to take legal possession of at least 66 of 178 properties between
Interstate 370 and Georgia Avenue, said Joseph M. Miklochik, director
of the highway administration's Office of Real Estate. A judge or
review board will decide whether the state's "fair market value"
offers are, in fact, fair.

The first stretch will make up about a third of the planned 18-mile
highway, which will stretch from Gaithersburg in Montgomery to Laurel
in Prince George's County. Construction could begin as early as this
summer, highway officials said.

Some landowners said the court action caught them by surprise. They
wondered why the state filed lawsuits or "quick take" petitions
against them while they thought they were negotiating a deal.

Others said they have felt rushed to sell before the state responded
to some of their inquiries, such as why neighbors received different
offers for similar land. Some said the state took legal possession of
their property in court while they were trying to discover the exact
land they stood to lose.

"Before we even knew it, there was a court filing against us," said
Alexandra Witze, whose Derwood homeowners association must sell about
3,300 square feet of its vacant common land for the highway. "We
haven't had time to get our questions answered from the state about
the impact this is going to have on our community or have any
dialogue."

Fred Begosh said the state moved to condemn part of his back yard
before he could learn why its $70,000 appraisal didn't include money
to replace mature trees. Landscapers have estimated that doing so will
cost more than $100,000, he said.

"They said they'd negotiate, but I can't get ahold of anyone," said
Begosh, who lives in Derwood.

State highway officials said they never intended to rush anyone.
Filing the court cases now will help keep the project on schedule,
they said. That is because the state must own or legally possess all
property in the highway's 7.2-mile western section before late March,
when it plans to award a major contract to design and build that
piece. Filing the condemnation papers in court gives the state legal
possession while the sales prices are being determined. The state must
buy about 1,400 acres, including 52 homes and 11 businesses, from
almost 500 property owners for the entire highway.

The intercounty connector, estimated to cost $2.4 billion, has been
hotly debated for decades. State officials say the highway, which was
proposed more than 50 years ago, is badly needed to improve east-west
travel through the Maryland suburbs, particularly between the
Interstate 270 and Interstate 95 corridors. Opponents, some of whom
have filed two federal lawsuits trying to stop it, say it will cost
too much, cause too much environmental damage and create unhealthy air
and noise pollution for nearby residents.

Miklochik said the state buys land for major road projects based on
independent appraisals of fair market value and negotiations with
property owners. To keep purchases moving, particularly in cases where
negotiations have stalled, the state can ask a Circuit Court judge or
the court's three-member Board of Property Review to determine a fair
price while it takes legal possession of the property.

In the meantime, the state deposits with the court the amount it has
deemed to be fair. Property owners can withdraw that money while the
case is pending.

State officials will continue to try to reach out-of-court financial
settlements after beginning legal proceedings, Miklochik said. The
state has not started buying land on the highway's eastern end, in
Prince George's County.

The number of cases filed in Montgomery, where most of the highway
will run, is on par for a big project, Miklochik said. He said the
state has settled with 16 of the 24 owners losing their entire homes
to the first leg of the road. One Derwood neighborhood, Cashell
Estates, has started emptying out as residents have begun accepting
the state's offers and moving.

"When we started this project, there was a lot of speculation that we
wouldn't have a lot of success," Miklochik said. "We've had
significant success."

A State Highway Administration spokesman declined The Washington
Post's request for the names of property owners facing court filings,
saying that compiling such a list is not necessary to comply with
public records laws. Some of those The Post was able to find through
court records and word of mouth declined to discuss their cases
publicly, saying they feared that doing so would jeopardize their
negotiations or hurt them in court. One property owner said she was
happy with her deal.

"We made out like bandits," said the former Derwood resident, who had
to sell her home of 53 years. She spoke on condition of anonymity
because she said she is elderly and lives alone. Her new home is
nicer, she said. State officials also agreed to pay for new ceiling
fans and an asphalt driveway to make her new house more comparable to
her old one, she said.

Although she opposes the highway, she said, state real estate
officials with whom she and her family dealt "seemed more than fair."

But others are not so happy. Many are losing peaceful woods and beautiful views.

A state official arrived on Alan Latt's doorstep the night before
Thanksgiving with an offer for a chunk of his Rockville back yard:
about $3.90 a square foot for the 38,000 square feet needed. Next
door, his neighbor Paul Sevier received an offer of about $6 a square
foot for part of his yard. Three doors down, a lot sold privately last
spring for about $12 a square foot, the neighbors said.

"I think they're low-balling us," Sevier said. "I just want a fair price."

Latt said he is trying to negotiate with state officials before they
file against him in court. He wants the state to pay for financial
damages he thinks he will suffer, particularly when he tries to sell
his house, next to a highway.

"It seems incomprehensible to me that you could replace hundreds of
oak trees with a six-lane highway in someone's back yard and say
there's no appreciable effect" on property values, Latt said.