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Fulton County school officials have withdrawn their threat to take a 19-acre site from a private school in Sandy Springs.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 ...
Yeah, it was all a "misunderstanding". You misunderstood the country in which you live, thinking it was China.
Hey...no hard feelings, right? /sarcasm
Ironically, it was a Jewish school.
Neal Boortz bringing this local issue to national attention was of great help.
Evicting the competition, heh?
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.
I believe Atlanta is certainly more corrupt than New Orleans.
Little Jimmy Wilson is merely a petty thief and a tyrant, who regrets getting caught trying to steal.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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