On December 14th, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in favor a landowner whose 73-acre property had been taken for expansion of the Clark County Regional Airport. The airport deposited $200,000 in 2009, but the jury verdict came to $865,000.
The bone of contention was highest and best use. Though used for agriculture, the land was zoned for light industrial, and the owner’s appraiser thought that this was its highest and best use. The County’s appraiser opined that since the land was in a flood zone it could only be used for agriculture.
By our calculator, the increase was $685,000 over the County’s deposit, and was almost three-ands-a-half times the County’s deposit.
The story is Ben Zion-Hershberg, Southern Indiana Airport Loses Appeal in Land Taking, Louisville Courier-Journal, December 23, 2011 – click here.