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May 2, 2023

Valuing the Special Purpose Property

          On occasion, one will encounter a property which is so unusual that it cannot be valued by the comparable sales (or market data approach) or by capitalization of income.  When that happens, the cost approach will be utilized.           In the cost approach, an appraiser values the property premised on the value of the land and then adds what it would cost to build a new structure.  The value is based on reproduction costs less observed depreciation.  All increment costs are also considered and added to the value.  The… read more

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Posted in Condemnation, Cost Approach, Special Purpose
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April 11, 2023

Condemnation to Build Slave Quarters

Gwinnett County, located in the North Central portion of Georgia and part of the metropolitan area of Atlanta, has backed down from the proposed condemnation of the “Promised Land” from a Black family. The Promised Land community was a plantation with about two dozen slaves prior to the Civil War. The land is owned by the descendants of freed slaves who once worked on a plantation on the same property. It was then owned by Thomas Maguire. “During the Civil War, Sherman’s troops burned this whole town, but he didn’t… read more

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Posted in Black Ownership, Condemnation, Historical Park
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April 6, 2023

Lowballing African-American Farmers in a $5.6 Billion Project

A largely rural African-American farming region in western Tennessee is subject to condemnations for a series of road connections and widenings that will link a 4,100-acre Blue Oval Ford campus to a new Exit 39 off of I-40 to accommodate throngs of workers and truck traffic.  Ford Motor Company broke ground on its future $5.6 billion electric truck plant a year ago. The state is seeking 35 separate tracts of land by purchase or eminent domain.  Thus far the state has taken possession of 15 tracts.  The path of the… read more

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Posted in Eminent Domain, Just Compensation, Lowball Offers
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April 4, 2023

Getting The Shaft

Daniel F. Sciannameo, MAI, one of New York City’s best appraisers and a Staten Island resident, brought an article published in the Staten Island Advance to my attention.  The article states that Staten Island residents have had to pay what amounted to a monthly tax to New York City for a subway line that was never built. The article written by Tom Wrobleski provides the history of the train line.  He wrote, “As originally conceived in the 1920s, the train line would have run from St. George to Mariners Harbor,… read more

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Posted in Abandonment of Project, Condemnation, Staten Island Subway
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March 30, 2023

Opposition to the Summit Pipeline

In our last blog, “We Don’t Care What the Stinking Pipeline Carries,” March 21, 2023, we reported on the Summit Pipeline which would carry millions of tons of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to be injected into underground rock formations.  The 2,000-mile pipeline would carry carbon dioxide across five states to underground storage in North Dakota. There has been a lot of opposition to the project from property owners and other groups.  Farmers have concerns about what the gas will do to the soil and water.  Another concern is that… read more

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Posted in Carbon Dioxide Pipeline, Condemnation, Summit Pipeline
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March 21, 2023

We Don’t Care What the Stinking Pipeline Carries.

Remember the Keystone XL pipeline?  Welcome to the Summit pipeline.  Instead of oil, the pipeline would carry millions of tons of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to be injected into underground rock formations rather than dispersed as pollutants in the air.  The 2,000 mile pipeline would carry carbon dioxide across five states to underground storage in North Dakota.  If built, it would be the largest carbon dioxide pipeline in the world. The idea behind the Summit pipeline is to take carbon dioxide from ethanol plants, where it is a byproduct… read more

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Posted in Carbon Dioxide Pipeline, Condemnation, Environment, Pipelines
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March 16, 2023

Racial Bias in Valuation of Residential Homes

We previously wrote an article in the New York Law Journal, “Diversity is Needed to End Racial Bias in Home Appraisals,” NYLJ December 27, 2022. We stated, the answer to appraisal bias on racial grounds is to expand opportunities for Black real estate professionals.  In a statement issued on September 20, 2020, the Appraisal Institute, the largest professional association of real estate appraisers reiterated its efforts to expand opportunities for aspiring appraisers to help combat bias in valuation. Less than 2 percent of appraisers identify as Black.  The appraisal industry… read more

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Posted in Racial Bias, Valuation
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March 9, 2023

Harris Neck, Georgia – Time to Return the Land

Harris Neck is located along the coast in the northeast corner of McIntosh County, Georgia.  It was once home to a prosperous and self-reliant community of 75 African American families.  It has been described as a stunningly beautiful 2,687 acres of meadows, freshwater ponds and marsh.  From the end of the Civil War until 1942, the community lived harmoniously with each other and their natural environment. According to an article written by Scott Reid in Change.org, “The people lived off the land, creeks, rivers and ocean, and they took their… read more

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Posted in Condemnation, Due Process, Fair Market Value, Racial Prejudice
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March 7, 2023

The Legacy of San Juan Hill – Not Pretty!

The New York Times ran a story by James Barron on February 15, 2023, “Before Lincoln Center, San Juan Hill was a Vibrant Black Community.” The article focused on an established and vibrant neighborhood that was razed for Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Seven thousand families and 800 businesses were displaced by urban renewal. The name of the neighborhood was thought to have been a tribute to the Black cavalry unit that fought in the battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War in 1898.  San Juan Hill was an… read more

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Posted in Blight, Condemnation, Racial Prejudice, Urban Renewal
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February 21, 2023

The Mere Mention of a Highway is Enough to Destroy a Neighborhood

An article written by Megan Kimble, “A Highway that Doesn’t Exist is Strangling a Black Neighborhood” published in Bloomberg.com describes what happened to the Allendale neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. In my article, ‘Urban Renewal, An Assault on Black Neighborhoods,” to be published in the New York Law Journal on February 28, 2023, I spoke of how, “[i]n city after city, highways that were build to appease white suburban commuters, and enabled through white suburban commuters, and enabled through eminent domain and funds from the 1949 Housing Act and 1956 Interstate… read more

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Posted in Condemnation, Highways, Racial Prejudice in Urban Planning, Urban Renewal
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