Necessity to Take

Goal:

Client did not want to lose this valuable real property. Indeed, the Purple Line Light Rail Project included a station platform immediately in front of this property in the center of the fronting road and the County had upzoned the property to encourage redevelopment of the property for mid-rise mixed use in order to take advantage of its proximity to mass transit. Consequently, the client wished to defeat the condemnation to preserve its ownership and the redevelopment potential of the property.

Success:

Joseph Suntum argued before the County Park and Planning Commission that the taking of the entire property was unnecessary for the Purple Line Project and that, in light of the County’s upzoning of the property and its policy desire that the property to be redeveloped with a mixed use residential  improvement, that the property was not appropriate for designation as parkland to satisfy the State’s parkland mitigation obligation. The Planning Board agreed and rejected the State’s tender of the property as parkland. Mr. Suntum then convinced the State to modify its taking plan to take only 10’ of the property in fee simple and take the remainder of the property only temporarily during construction of the Purple Line. The client received full and fair compensation for the property taken in fee simple, including the value of the grocery store, which would be demolished, as well as compensation for the value of the temporary taking of the remainder of the property for the 5-year period of construction of the Purple Line Project. When construction of the light rail project is complete the State’s temporary easement will terminate and possession of the large remainder of the property will return to our client for redevelopment.