Developer wins $3.2 million over Legacy Trail land
“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.
The decision comes just months after a similar eminent domain case involving claims by 48 land owners along the Legacy Trail fetched a $6.5 million settlement. Another 13 Legacy Trail claims are still pending.”
Salman, Josh. Herald Tribune 2 July 2013.
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