The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that an Allegheny County trial court rejected a borough’s evidence of a $93,000 value for the taking of a 20-acre parcel for “recreation areas and green space,” and awarded the owners $1 million, over ten times the borough’s offer. The land owners were using the subject property for selling topsoil and evidently that aspect of the property’s value (as well as the timber on it), figured in the judge’s decision.
In addition to the just compensation award, the judge awarded the owners $200,000 in attorneys fees. Interest is estimated to come to around $600,000, which is not surprising given the baronial leisure in which the borough evidently pursued this case. It took the property in 1999.
See Bobby Kerlik, Crafton Out $1.8 Million Over Land Dispute, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 22, 2011. Go to here.