A day in court is on the horizon for some Flint Hills Manor property owners who refuse to sell their properties to the city of Burlington.
Despite a plea from one of the affected property owners, the city council voted 5–0 Monday in favor of moving forward with eminent domain proceedings against 10 Manor property owners.
Middletown resident Robert Brent, who owns two four–plex units at the Manor, presented documentation and photographs supportive of his belief that what the city is offering for his properties at 210–216 Ordnance Court and 222–228 Ordnance Court isn't enough.
The city's appraisal of Brent's properties indicate he should be paid $260,000 for them.
A report prepared by local real estate agent Mary Wiegard for Brent indicates the combined worth of the properties as $458,000.
Brent asked the council to postpone its decision until council members have a chance to review the information.
"You've paid three of my tenants to move out," Brent said. "Do you have any intention of reimbursing me at all for that? ... It's pretty hard to re–rent these apartments when everybody in town knows what you guys are trying to do here. It's just not very fair, either."
City Manager Bruce Slagle said when the city initiated the Manor project last year, it was required by law to inform tenants of what was happening.
"That's fine, but what are you going to do for the landowners?" Brent said.
Eric Tysland, the acting development director, said the city has been recommending to Manor tenants to stay where they are until the city purchases their respective properties.
"But those that desire to move out on their own ... we've been paying them the minimum amount to relocate," Tysland said. "If they break their lease, then that's something they're doing willingly."
Brent said "as it stands, there's no possible way I can accept that."
Mayor Mike Edwards encouraged Brent to obtain an appraisal from a certified appraiser.
Councilman Tim Scott told Brent the city does "want you to get a fair settlement."
"There may be some problems with some appraisals that our appraiser has done," Scott said. "The best thing to do is to get to a point where you get your appraisal and sit down and negotiate through us, or if it goes into an eminent domain situation where you sit down with a third party and a third party decides which appraisal is the appropriate appraisal."
Scott said he and the council are "committed to the project."
"There's no feel good feeling about putting a businessman like yourself out of this portion of his business, or putting an individual homeowner out of his home," he said. "But I feel that the end results are going to be the best for the community."
The city's project, which started last year, involves purchasing all Manor properties east of Roosevelt Avenue and selling the entire 23.7 acres to Minnesota commercial developer Robert Muir Co.
Isn't that great? Flint Hills was one of the exceptions in last year's eminent domain law that was passed by the Iowa Legislature, vetoed by then-Governor Tom Vilsack, and then overridden by the Iowa Legislature.
This is the sort of crap that Tom Vilsack wanted to allow all around Iowa thanks to his veto: have a city lowball property owners and renters, drag them through a horrible process where the rules are stacked against the little guy, and then sell the land to some politically-connected out-of-state developer so another strip mall can be built.
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