Following the Pelham school board’s decision not to challenge the condemnation of parts of Julianne’s Playground, Village of Pelham Mayor Chance Mullen said Tuesday the municipality plans to pay compensation for use of the land in the school district-owned park based on “the highest approved appraisal.”
The Village of Pelham Board of Trustees voted Sept. 10 to commence eminent domain proceedings to condemn the land as part of a $39 million storm sewer system overhaul designed to reduce increasingly severe flooding in the north Pelham and Highbrook Avenue neighborhoods. Under the condemnation, the village is seeking to take ownership of .13 acres of the playground for six diesel pumps, a pump house and bathrooms, while also acquiring a permanent subterranean easement covering .7 acres for an underground reservoir and a temporary easement covering 1.71 acres to stage the construction project.
“The village is required to compensate the school district for the property interests we acquire, and we fully intend to comply with this statutory obligation,” said Mullen in an email to residents. “The school district will have the option to either accept that offer as a settlement in full, or to accept the offer as an advance payment only, while reserving its right to claim additional compensation in court. In such an event, the village and the school district may have a valuation dispute, which is common in eminent domain proceedings. We are hopeful that we will be able to agree to a valuation that is fair and reasonable to both parties.”
“Although the school district will have the right to challenge the village’s valuation in court if it chooses to do so, they will not be able to prevent this important project from moving forward,” Mullen said.
On Monday, the school board issued a statement announcing it was abandoning plans for an appeal of the condemnation based on the advice of its lawyers, saying the village would still gain the easements it seeks even if the district made the legal challenge in the appellate division of state court.
This week’s announcements came after Mullen and School Board President Jackie De Angelis met privately on Oct. 11 to discuss the legal dispute over the park on Sixth Street.
According to Mullen, the village has three years to commence the eminent domain proceedings in court, which will happen once the engineering designs are ready for the project.
The .7-acre easement—which is a permanent right to use the land without owning it—would be for land under the blacktop and tennis courts at the park, where a three-million-gallon reservoir would be constructed. The six pumps are designed to turn on in stages as needed to move water collected in the reservoir from storm sewers to the Hutchinson River.
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