Westerville whacked with $1.3M verdict in eminent-domain case
“A project in Westerville to beautify the State Street gateway north into the suburb just got more expensive – a lot more expensive.
A Franklin County jury has decided the city must pay the owner of the U.S. Bank branch at 833 S. State St. a whopping $1.32 million to carve off the edges of the 1.6-acre corner lot. The city had offered property owner James R. Taylor of Reynoldsburg just $145,000.
The slice of land Westerville wants to take goes back nearly 16 feet at the corner where the city wants to install a 2,000-square-foot brick plaza. The project also envisions an iron fence and planned landscaping along Heatherdown Drive that could cut off one of the two entrances into the bank property.
In an earlier brief, Ingram had argued the landscape project didn’t even quality for a public taking under Ohio law since it’s not “for a public use” of improving the roadway.””
Ball, Brian. Columbus Business First 16 May 2013.