Tigard cemetery wins lawsuit against Beaverton schools
“The Beaverton School District lost a $6.7 million lawsuit against a Tigard cemetery, ending a yearlong legal battle over the property it planned to purchase to build a new high school.
Crescent Grove Cemetery has owned 15 acres of property on Southwest Scholls Ferry Road and 175th Avenue for nearly than 50 years.
The district has had plans for years to build a new high school in South Cooper Mountain and took the land under eminent domain. Under the U.S. Constitution the district is required to pay property owners fair market value for the land.
“They have to offer just compensation under the Constitution and state law,” said Jim Zupancic, a lawyer representing the Crescent Grove Cemetery Association, a nonprofit group that runs the cemetery and maintains the property. “But there can be differences of opinion of what fair market value is.”
According to Maureen Wheeler, a spokeswoman for the Beaverton School District, the district appraised the land at more than $1 million.
“We did appraisals on the site, if not once, then more than once,” Wheeler said.
The district offered $1.3 million for the land, and later increased its offer to $1.7 million, according to Zupancic.
The district purchased a neighboring property for a similar amount, Wheeler said.
“We offered a sum of about $125,000 an acre,” Wheeler said. “That is what we also settled with for the (other) property.”
Crescent Grove contested the price, claiming the $1 million price tag did not reflect what the cities of Beaverton and Tigard are planning for the area.”
Pursinger, Geoff. Portland Tribune 2 May 2014.