Developer wins $3.2 million over Legacy Trail land
“The cost to build one of Southwest Florida’s most popular walking and bicycle trails has ballooned in recent months — and the hit to taxpayers may not be over yet.
Sarasota County developer Hugh Culverhouse has been awarded $3.2 million in an unusual eminent domain case nearly a decade after a public agency called the Surface Transportation Board seized a sliver of his Palmer Ranch property to build the Legacy Trail on an abandoned rail line. The judgment could swell to $5.1 million after interest.
A federal judge last week found Culverhouse’s 50-foot-wide slice of vacant land bordering nearly a mile of the trail was worth $1.3 million, and also awarded him damages for lost road access and property devaluation for his remaining 360 acres of property there.”
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130702/ARTICLE/130709899/-1/news?Title=NEW-Developer-wins-3-2-million-over-Legacy-Trail-land&tc=ar
Salman, Josh. Herald Tribune 2 July 2013.