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Private School Won't Be Forced To Sell Land
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | September 20, 2005 | Diane R. Stepp

Posted on 09/20/2005 8:38:45 AM PDT by Cecily

Fulton County school officials have withdrawn their threat to take a 19-acre site from a private school in Sandy Springs.

Fulton Schools had offered the Weber School $18.7 million for the site on Roswell Road on which it wanted to build an elementary school to alleviate crowding.

When Weber officials said they had no desire to sell the site, Fulton indicated in a strongly worded letter that unless Weber agreed by Monday to sell the property, the school board would use eminent domain to obtain it.

On Sunday, during a groundbreaking for a high school they plan to build at the site, Weber school leaders said they would not sell the site and would fight any attempts the board made to take the land.

On Monday, Fulton Schools Superintendent James Wilson told Weber board president Steve Berman in writing and by phone that the district would no longer pursue the Weber property and that he regretted the misunderstanding. "It is in our interest to be a good neighbor," he said

(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Hooray! The uproar must have been deafening.
1 posted on 09/20/2005 8:38:46 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: Cecily
... and that he regretted the misunderstanding.

Yeah, it was all a "misunderstanding". You misunderstood the country in which you live, thinking it was China.

2 posted on 09/20/2005 8:42:52 AM PDT by TChris ("The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail" - Goh Chok Tong)
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To: Cecily

Hey...no hard feelings, right? /sarcasm


3 posted on 09/20/2005 8:49:59 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker
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To: Cecily

Ironically, it was a Jewish school.


4 posted on 09/20/2005 8:50:54 AM PDT by stinkerpot65
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To: Cecily

Neal Boortz bringing this local issue to national attention was of great help.


5 posted on 09/20/2005 8:56:46 AM PDT by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
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To: All

Evicting the competition, heh?


6 posted on 09/20/2005 8:58:44 AM PDT by TNdandelion
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To: stinkerpot65

Jewish school? Just goes to show that when it's their private land that someone is trying to grab politics start shifting to the right in a hurry.


7 posted on 09/20/2005 8:59:46 AM PDT by Translates
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To: Cecily

I believe Atlanta is certainly more corrupt than New Orleans.


8 posted on 09/20/2005 9:05:21 AM PDT by Niteranger68 ("Spare the rod, spoil the liberal.")
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To: Cecily
he regretted the misunderstanding

Little Jimmy Wilson is merely a petty thief and a tyrant, who regrets getting caught trying to steal.

9 posted on 09/20/2005 9:09:15 AM PDT by neutrino (Globalization “is the economic treason that dare not speak its name.” (173))
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To: Phantom Lord

Neal was indignant, to say the least.

I think it was Neal who said this was Fulton County's "get back at you" for Sandy Springs incorporating into a city with attendant loss of tax revenue to Fulton County.


10 posted on 09/20/2005 9:32:32 AM PDT by Ole Okie
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To: Cecily
Fulton indicated in a strongly worded letter that unless Weber agreed by Monday to sell the property, the school board would use eminent domain to obtain it. . . . Fulton school board president Gail Dean said the board had been under the impression that the district was in negotiations with a willing seller. "Had we known they had no interest in selling, we would not have pursued it," she said.

Maybe Dean can explain who or what wrote the letter. "Fulton" refers to the county and/or the school district. Counties and school districts don't write letters, people do. Who wrote the letter? Am I supposed to believe that a letter threatening that the Fulton School District would use eminent domain to obtain land, was written and sent without the school board's knowledge? I don't. And nobody threatens to use eminent domain (especially accompanied by a very short term deadline), when they think they're negotiating with a willer seller. Dean lies.

11 posted on 09/20/2005 10:04:49 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GovernmentShrinker
willer willing
12 posted on 09/20/2005 10:07:45 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: Cecily

Sorry to disagree, but building a public school is a public good and therefor a legitimate use of eminent domain.

However, a Wal-Mart is not.

Let's make these disctintions clear.

The fact that they are replacing a private school is a problem, but one that's solved in other ways.


13 posted on 09/20/2005 11:05:13 AM PDT by Santiago de la Vega (El hijo del Zorro)
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To: Santiago de la Vega
The fact that they are replacing a private school is a problem, but one that's solved in other ways.

How about we recognize that when others, like the folks who put in the private school, are wise, plan ahead and generate value from their choices and decisions, it is not a legitimate function of government to point a gun at the wise party in order to steal their assets. The school first there is the school that has a right to be there.

14 posted on 09/20/2005 12:53:34 PM PDT by Lester Moore (islam's allah is Satan and is NOT the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.)
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To: Lester Moore

Lester,

I think your characterization is not quite accurate.

Governments don't steal land, they take it by paying fair market value. The land's value is appraised just as it would be in any sale.

The economic argument is that public use of the land is - supposedly - more valuable than private use; so valuable that the government's use outweighs private use.

In this case, a public school is more valuable than a private school.

At least that's the argument.


15 posted on 09/21/2005 3:12:43 AM PDT by Santiago de la Vega (El hijo del Zorro)
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To: Santiago de la Vega
Governments don't steal land, they take it by paying fair market value.

Fair market value is a fiction.

Let's say I have a use for my land that I value at $400K, where all available alternates are not good locations for my use. Other people might pay $300K for my land, so the assessor has me paid $300K. I'm still out $100K in lost value because now I can't persue my intended use for the land

16 posted on 09/21/2005 3:20:00 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Never try to teach a pig to sing -- it wastes your time and it annoys the pig)
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