ROW Clearance; This is awsome!

[Brian556]

ROW Clearance for FM 2181 widening in Corinth, TX
FM 2181 is being widened from a two-lane road to a six-lane road.
Notice how the back yards of the residences have been cut in half.
I love seeing property being taken from a few individuals for the greater good of the general public.
Much too often the governemnt pussies out and lets selfish individuals stand in the way of the greater good.
What's interesting is that the neighborhood being affected is not very old. Looks like somebody didn't plan ahead.

[realjd]

ROW Clearance for FM 2181 widening in Corinth, TX
FM 2181 is being widened from a two-lane road to a six-lane road.
Notice how the back yards of the residences have been cut in half.
I love seeing property being taken from a few individuals for the greater good of the general public.
Much too often the governemnt pussies out and lets selfish individuals stand in the way of the greater good.
What's interesting is that the neighborhood being affected is not very old. Looks like somebody didn't plan ahead.

You love seeing people lose property to the government? That's harsh. Eminent domain is a necessary evil (and NIMBY's piss me off too), but it still really blows for those folks.

[Brandon]

I'd rather see proper planning and the ROW set aside well before the development arrives.

[roadfro]

^ Ditto. Las Vegas learned this the hard way...

[Brendan]

I love seeing property being taken from a few individuals for the greater good of the general public.

As a victim of eminent domain, I couldn't agree less.  I was in the same situation except they took 20' of my front yard to add a lane which decimated my property's value (they decided that my two lane street would be a good candidate for a 4 lane through street).  For that I got $100.  I can't see relishing in someone's financial loss for a road widening; but since you work for TXDOT, you might be biased.  I have no problem with eminent domain, but they generally don't seem to want to recompense fairly.

Brendan

[J N Winkler]

As a victim of eminent domain, I couldn't agree less.  I was in the same situation except they took 20' of my front yard to add a lane which decimated my property's value (they decided that my two lane street would be a good candidate for a 4 lane through street).  For that I got $100.

Frankly, that sounds far too low.  Houses around here tend to be on 75' x 125' lots and to have appraised values around $120,000, which includes site value of about $20,000.  Assuming that similar values hold in your area, you should have gotten something like $3,000 for acquisition of a strip comprising almost one-sixth of the site.  This does not include compensation for injurious affection (in your case, loss of value in the house owing to lost setback from the street and increased difficulty of access owing to having to maneuver in and out of a four-lane city street), which you are morally entitled to even if the state DOT's ROW agents don't offer it unless threatened with a condemnation lawsuit.

[Brendan]

The state claimed that due to some oversight, they really owned or had easement rights the majority of the 20 feet despite home owners' surveys to the contrary.  There was talk of a lawsuit but i have since moved on and have not heard anything since.

Brendan

[Brian556]

As a victim of eminent domain, I couldn't agree less.  I was in the same situation except they took 20' of my front yard to add a lane which decimated my property's value (they decided that my two lane street would be a good candidate for a 4 lane through street).  For that I got $100.  I can't see relishing in someone's financial loss for a road widening; but since you work for TXDOT, you might be biased.  I have no problem with eminent domain, but they generally don't seem to want to recompense fairly.

Brendan

Sorry to hear about your loss. Your are right that the government should plan ahead and avoid this situation. Most of the time around here they do. I do not work for TxDOT anymore, and thats not why I'm biased.

The reason for that statement is that I am tired of NIMBY's. The I-40 situations at Memphis really is annoying to me. I-40 is one of the most important highways in the country, and I don't appreciate having to go around the loop, making an already long trip longer, just to save some old, outdated, s*** buildings. Sorry people, but I-40 is more important than your ghetto.

[InterstateNG]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, that two extra miles is such a huge burden.  Fuck those poor people and their park.

[Brian556]

Yeah, that two extra miles is such a huge burden.  Fuck those poor people and their park.

Ok, I guess two extra miles really isn't that bad. Didn't realize that the extra milage was that short. But it still seems crazy to have such an important highway blocked by a park, leaving that stub that they spent alot of money on for nothing. Yeah, my attitude in that post did probably sound bad.

My point isn't to hate on people that happen to unfortunatly be in the way of progress, my point is that progress just has to happen, and sometimes big changes have to happen to move foward and do what needs to be done for the greater good, in spite of the fact that everyone will not be happy. Interstate Highways are a nessessity for cities and our country to function, we can't live without them.

[hbelkins]

I love seeing property being taken from a few individuals for the greater good of the general public.
Much too often the governemnt pussies out and lets selfish individuals stand in the way of the greater good.

I'm used to socialist attitudes within the government, just not within DOTs. Thought this "we want what's rightfully yours" attitude was the exclusive property of the social services agencies.

I'd rather see proper planning and the ROW set aside well before the development arrives.

Really. But, how were the subdivision developers to know that the road would have to be widened sometime?

The reason for that statement is that I am tired of NIMBY's. The I-40 situations at Memphis really is annoying to me. I-40 is one of the most important highways in the country, and I don't appreciate having to go around the loop, making an already long trip longer, just to save some old, outdated, s*** buildings. Sorry people, but I-40 is more important than your ghetto.

Except this doesn't look like a ghetto. These look like nice homes.

[KEK Inc.]

Eminent domain, while in many cases are necessary, is devastating to property owners.  They never get fair compensation.  Calling them selfish to protect their owned property is a bit of a stretch. 

[Zmapper]

The good news is that the appropriate governing bodies are getting better at not just slicing through peoples houses. A blog that I stumbled on, Keep Houston Houston, featured a post about freeway removal. Towards the bottom of the post, notice the differences in 1960's mentality and 1990's mentality. Back in 1960 it was just fine to slice though inner city neighborhoods with no respect to the livelihoods in the way. Today, new infill roads tend to be built with more curves, just to avoid property condemnation.

Personally, I believe eminent domain should be reserved for just two uses; reservoirs and transportation corridors. Obviously, you need ALL off the property below to build a reservoir, so one holdout could effectively stop any new reservoir.

Eminent domain for transportation corridors is necessary, but only as a "last resort". While alignment A may be preferable, B-Z are also acceptable to varying degrees. They could have widened another road, converted that street and an adjacent one to a one way couplet, or even tried to fit 6 lanes in the existing ROW. Every once an a while, there truly is a case where a holdout might add millions to the project cost. Eminent domain should be reserved for those cases.

What I don't like are governing bodies using eminent domain in order to build non-site specific buildings in certain locations. Building layouts are flexible; therefore they still have options B-Z after A was exhausted.

[1995hoo]

Situations like what the OP posted are why I will never buy a house on a main road if at all possible. I don't want to risk losing property if a road is widened or reconstructed. (Regarding "reconstructed," consider that your property might be affected if they simply choose to regrade a road to even out the two sides, or to install a new turn lane, or whatever.) Heck, buying a house with a direct line of sight to a main road is something I'd avoid. We just came back from Florida, where my sister-in-law lives near, but not on, a road that is gradually being widened from two lanes to four lanes with a median, and there's also a Publix grocery store going up across that road. While there is a pond and some palm trees separating her house from the road, the backup beepers on the construction trucks sound like an alarm clock symphony beginning at 6:00 AM.

I don't have a picture of it, but there is a house on the corner of Cedar Lane and US-29 here in Fairfax County where a fellow not only lost his front yard when Cedar Lane was rebuilt, he also lost his driveway, rendering his garage useless for parking cars until he was able to have a new garage door and driveway extension constructed on the back side. Stuff like that STINKS.

I will say that I have very little sympathy for people who fail to check the planning documents or who assume a road won't get built just because it's taken a long time. If a planned road, or a widening project, is on the books and you buy next to it, you did a dumb thing and you have no basis for complaining.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Eminent domain, while in many cases are necessary, is devastating to property owners.  They never get fair compensation.  Calling them selfish to protect their owned property is a bit of a stretch. 

Thus the creation of "NIMBYs"

[SidS1045]

I love seeing property being taken from a few individuals for the greater good of the general public.

...until it's done to you.  I guarantee you won't be so happy then.

[Grzrd]

I love seeing property being taken from a few individuals for the greater good of the general public.
Much too often the governemnt pussies out and lets selfish individuals stand in the way of the greater good.

Yeah, that two extra miles is such a huge burden.  Fuck those poor people and their park.

Ok, I guess two extra miles really isn't that bad. Didn't realize that the extra milage was that short. But it still seems crazy to have such an important highway blocked by a park, leaving that stub that they spent alot of money on for nothing ... my point is that progress just has to happen, and sometimes big changes have to happen to move foward and do what needs to be done for the greater good

It's important to remember that Overton Park was/is public land, not private.  The Overton Park routing was chosen in large part because the land acquisition costs were less than they would have been if a routing through tracts of private property had been chosen.  In a broad sense, the Overton Park Supreme Court case addressed the question of whether the governmental authorities that chose to route I-40 through Overton Park had acted in the interests of the "greater good", i.e. preservation of irreplaceable park valued by many members (not "a few individuals") of the local populace vs. routing of new interstate that would be used by both the local populace and the entire U.S.  The Supreme Court's decision led to an outcome of preservation of the public's park and an I-40 routing only two miles longer than the one that would have destroyed the park.  Seems to me like the "greater good" won out, AND progress proceeded ("big change") with an I-40 routing in the Memphis area.

[vdeane]

To assume that a street won't ever change is to be an idiot.

There are far too many people who seem to think that main roads and residential street are one and same.  I've seen a lot of people create traffic backups by trying to back into a major road like they would a residential street with no traffic.

If you choose to live on a main road, don't complain about traffic or losing some yard when the road inevitably needs widening.  And if the house is so close the the slightest work to the road would bring it to the building, run away and don't look back.  You're just asking for trouble by buying that place.

[1995hoo]

....

If you choose to live on a main road, don't complain about traffic or losing some yard when the road inevitably needs widening.  And if the house is so close the the slightest work to the road would bring it to the building, run away and don't look back.  You're just asking for trouble by buying that place.

Good summary. I'd add one other thought: If you're considering buying a house and you see a string of houses in a row all for sale, it's time to ask questions before deciding to buy. Homeowners may be trying to bail out prior to road widening or new construction or the like. (While there may be other perfectly legitimate reasons for several houses to go up for sale all at once, the person who fails to investigate the circumstances is foolish. In the legal profession we call it failing to perform due diligence.)

[Revive 755]

Eminent domain, while in many cases are necessary, is devastating to property owners.  They never get fair compensation.  Calling them selfish to protect their owned property is a bit of a stretch. 

I don't know about the never getting fair compensation, the sum for a piece of land for the Page-Olive Connector ("MO 141 extension") in the St. Louis metro has me wondering:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/family-gets-million-award-for-property-taken-by-st-louis/article_041569e3-b69f-52e7-9175-7a075e3d85df.html?mode=story

[BigMattFromTexas]

In San Angelo, the currently two lane Loop 306 is planned to be converted to a four lane divided highway. All the buildings are built away from the current road, and all the houses have long driveways, because I guess TxDOT has already claimed the right of way. Here's a link to the map.
http://maps.google.com/?ll=31.401506,-100.367618&spn=0.012546,0.022724&hnear=Texas&t=h&z=16&vpsrc=6
BigMatt

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

I don't have a picture of it, but there is a house on the corner of Cedar Lane and US-29 here in Fairfax County where a fellow not only lost his front yard when Cedar Lane was rebuilt, he also lost his driveway, rendering his garage useless for parking cars until he was able to have a new garage door and driveway extension constructed on the back side. Stuff like that STINKS.

This one?

[1995hoo]

I don't have a picture of it, but there is a house on the corner of Cedar Lane and US-29 here in Fairfax County where a fellow not only lost his front yard when Cedar Lane was rebuilt, he also lost his driveway, rendering his garage useless for parking cars until he was able to have a new garage door and driveway extension constructed on the back side. Stuff like that STINKS.

This one?

That's the house, but that picture is too recent and doesn't really illustrate how bad it was. When they first rebuilt the road, he lost his whole yard and that wall wasn't there. The Street View image is a little grainy, but if you look closely you can see where his brick steps end? When they first rebuilt the road, they graded his yard as a steep grassy slope from there down to road level and his steps abruptly ended right at the top of that hill. The retaining wall in the Street View image is much more recent. Similarly, his garage door used to be on the front where those two windows are and the hill came up almost right to his door. I do not remember whether a car got stranded in there.

[Truvelo]

Looking at the historical imagery on Google Earth of Cedar Lane the images from 2002 show a car parked diagonally in front of the garage. The only earlier image is from 1988 which shows woodland where the house is and no dedicated left turn lane approaching the traffic lights.

Over here this road was widened to three lanes last year and the gardens on the left have been 'eaten' by the road claim residents.

[us175]

What about those who can't speak for themselves?

One of the most deplorable local acts in local roadwork I've ever heard came when US 75 was moved in Dallas from Greenville and Ross Ave. to the then-new alignment along the railroad ROW of the Houston & Texas Central (the namesake of Central Expressway, where US 75 runs now).  Beforehand, the railroad ran through the Freedmen's Town neighborhood and past a nearby cemetery.  The post-World War II timeframe was an era where optimism began and grew when it came to car ownership and freeway growth.  Little did those of us in the modern day know that, when the time came to redo US 75-Central in 1989, a horrible reality would be unearthed.

When construction crews began prep-work and clearing in the vicinity of the Lemmon Ave. exit, they would find human remains.  And more human remains.

That part of the project immediately slowed to a crawl.  Eventually, after much painstaking work, more than 1000 bodies would be found.  A sad truth was made known--no care was taken in the late 1940s when the Central construction was commenced about re-interment of any possible graves.  People's bodies had been driven over on US 75, the Central service road, and Lemmon Ave., for OVER 40 YEARS!!

Now, those souls have some peace (if peace can be experienced after having cars roll over you for 4 decades), within the confines of Freedmen's Cemetery--even though they aren't marked.

Yes, US 75 needed to be realigned, made into a freeway, then later widened and modernized.  Ordinarily, it probably should have been awesome, but progress came at an unnecessarily sad price.