The application died in August when the Halpers rejected an offer of slightly more than $3 million for the development rights for their farm, and the township restarted the condemnation.
Wahler said then and again yesterday that he did not understand why the Halpers rejected the offer since they could have kept the farm in perpetuity or, if they later decided to sell, could do so for market value to someone else who wanted to operate the farm.
In this case, I do not know what the complaint actually is. They could have kept their property, done whatever they wanted, except develop it commercially, and have received $3 million to boot.
I beleive that they should have been able to develop the land, if they wished, in this case it is not what they said they planned to do.
I don't think they should loose their land even now, but it seems they had a good deal going if they really only wanted to keep the land.
What do you think?
(Still agree their property rights have definitely been violated.)
Hank
Maybe so; then again all of the PDR's I've heard of have the following cast-iron restriction:
-- they would be unable to add any other buildings to their property, or section off some acreage to allow a son to build his own home.
Secondly ... who gets the 'development rights'? There are countless times those 'rights' have been passed around the 'do-gooder' conservation orgs and eventually sold [at a very tidy profit] to a government "for the good of the community".
Eminent Domain, as practiced in this case, is nothing more than legalized theft.
First, I have known Clara and her family for all of these 3 long years!!!! She and her family are not “willing-sellers” at NO PRICE!!!!!!!!!!! They simply want to live their lives on THEIR land the way they have for the last 80 + years doing what they have always done for those 80+ years!!!!!!!!!
Raising their families, growing produce for consumers, making a living and paying taxes! Basically being good responsible American citizens! Let me repeat......they do not want to sell anything for any price!!!!! They wish only to be left alone to enjoy what The Declaration of Independence and the resulting US Constitution IS SUPPOSED TO GUARANTEE THEM!!!!!!!
Of course I know you know what these documents say, and that is why Clara fights for her land....she is not just fighting for her land, she is fighting for all of us and those rights guaranteed by those very documents!
Now, once one “sells’ their development rights to whomever, those “whomevers” always find a way to finish off the landowners!!!!!!! The land owners will be found guilty of “violations” of those agreements made concerning “developmental rights”.....they will be taken to court, fined and eventually the “whomevers” will get all their money back and the family perhaps even put into jail!!!!! One example is of a person forced to sell his developmental rights to the NPS and because he placed a birdhouse one the property he was fined $10,000 a day!!!!!! He bucked, and he lost!!!!!!!! He lost everything!!!!!! I will include the following website for reference! http://www.nationalcenter.org/VictimDirectory00.html
I hope I have not confused you further, but always remember the old saying, “beware those bearing gifts”!
It is very difficult to get buyers for property with no possible changes--ever. Then there is the issue of getting a loan on the property--banks do not like to loan on property with no future increase in value.
The other thing to consider as a possible reason why the owners are not interested in the sale of the development rights is that the purchase can entail what the owner can do with the property, i.e., add a barn, remodel a house, remove a building, add or remove a fence and so on.
Another reason, what if adjacent properties make it impossible to farm this property. Then what do you do?
The biggest issue is why should these non-vested interests be taking private property from the owners?