City wants to seize half of house
Homeowner says rest of his property would be unusable and wants city to buy all of it
The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran
J J Valentine sits on his driveway Wednesday at the Oakley house he owns. He sits at the point that would divide his property, according to city plans.
Written by
Jane Prendergast
If only someone would rent a house with its front torn off.
That would solve JJ Valentine’s problem, which is that the city of Cincinnati wants to take by eminent domain about 40 percent of his Oakley property – including the front of the house. The lot is in the path of the Kennedy Connector project. But Valentine still owes a mortgage and the city’s $40,000 offer doesn’t begin to cover it.
So lawyers for Valentine and the city are debating: When is a half really a whole?
“If this goes the way they want it to, I’d basically be paying the city to take it from me,” Valentine said. “When you owe more on a property than they’re offering, I just don’t know what to say.”
He figures with his mortgage, legal fees and taxes, he needs just over $200,000 – “just to walk away without a penny in my pocket.”
The city, in 2009, offered Valentine $147,000 for 3343 Ibsen Ave. Since, the amount was reduced once engineers decided the city only needed part of the property. The remaining property, the city says, could be used for a commercial business – it sits behind the Center of Cincinnati shopping area.
But Valentine and his lawyer, Daniel McCarthy, say the amount that would be left would be too small to use for anything. The law calls that an “uneconomic remnant.”
The city filed suit against Valentine in January.
“The closer a road project gets to someone’s home, the less they like it,” said John Curp, city solicitor. “We understand that.”
Eminent domain is the legal process by which a government can acquire private property – with “just” compensation – for a public use. Most Cincinnati cases involve taking slivers of property for road widenings, park projects and sewer projects – smaller “takes” than at Valentine’s property, Curp said.
The bigger cases, like the Kennedy Connector, are much less common, he said. Among them: the massive Metropolitan Sewer District improvement project in South Fairmount; and the repair of the Western Hills Viaduct.
“It’s not a question of if the city can take it,” Curp said, “it’s a question of what the value is.”
The city used to employ eight people full-time in its real estate office. Most have been laid off, Curp said, so some cases are now sent to outside lawyers.
The $30 million Kennedy Connector project, discussed for years and delayed, is now expected to start construction in the spring with an end date of sometime in late 2013. It will connect Madison Road and Ibsen to Kennedy Avenue and Duck Creek Road, as well as to Interstate 71 and the Norwood Lateral. Engineers say it will alleviate congestion and support future development along Ridge Road.
In the scheme of acquisitions even for this project, the Valentine property one is small. The city has paid millions so far, including $3.2 million to the Ibsen Company and $975,000 to Crossroads Community Church.
Valentine’s former next-door neighbor got $168,000 and three owners directly around his property at 3343 Ibsen Ave. got $146,000, $154,000 and $160,000. Officials say every acquisition and offer are different, depending upon details of the project and how much land the city needs.
Valentine’s house, a three-bedroom built in 1923, was last valued at $102,820 by the Hamilton County auditor. Its lot is 37 feet by 165 feet.
Valentine first bought the house in 1995, then sold it and bought it back again, as Tradewinds Properties LLC, in 2004 for $305,000, according to the Hamilton County Auditor’s site.
The city tells Valentine it’s not responsible for him being under water with his mortgage. While that’s true, McCarthy said, the man still deserves a fair deal. They’re still hoping to settle, but will take their lawsuit to a jury trial if need be.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120.../303090176