Posted on Oct 19, 2012 in News & Events
North Kansas City is suffering from what one reporter has referred to as “legal heartburn” after a Clay County (Missouri) Circuit Judge found that the City of North Kansas City did not have the power to condemn a Burger King restaurant in an area the City wishes to redevelop.
Read MorePosted on Jan 19, 2011 in News & Events
A St. Louis-based frozen food company, M & L Foods, Inc., recently secured a $5.3 million from the Missouri Department of Transportation to settle an eminent domain case that required the company give up its entire property and relocate its business. MoDOT condemned the M & L property for the construction of a new Interstate 70 Mississippi River Bridge. M & L’s attorney, Robert Denlow, explained that the settlement funds will allow M & L Foods to relocate within the city and continue operating this St. Louis-based business after more than 100 years. [Disclosure: Robert Denlow is the Missouri Member of the Owners’ Counsel of America.]
Read MorePosted on Jul 23, 2010 in News & Events
KMOX.com reports here that just compensation has finally been paid to St. Louis property owner Bill Simon for the 2 acre commercial property he owned in the Bottle District of downtown St. Louis. In 2005, the Land Clearance and Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) seized Mr. Simon’s land by eminent domain for the purpose of redevelopment.
Read MorePosted on Jul 22, 2010 in News & Events
In July 2008, a jury awarded Bill Simon $2,871,200, an increase of approximately $1.6 million over what he had initially been offered. (See our previous post about the case here.) The court entered a judgment against the Land Clearance and Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) requiring the city agency to pay the verdict amount plus $317,427 in pre-trial interest and $475 per day in interest thereafter.
Read MorePosted on Jul 15, 2010 in News & Events
On Tuesday, July 13, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed into law Senate Bill 851 and House Bill 1444, which contain identical provisions that require local governmental bodies to provide at least four days’ public notice before meetings on eminent domain, tax increases or redevelopment plans financed with public funds can take place. Additionally, the new law prohibits voting on such items prior to allowing the public to comment on these items.
Read MorePosted on Mar 31, 2010 in News & Events
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey ruled that a mural reading – “End Eminent Domain Abuse” (pictured above, image from KMOX News, St. Louis, MO) – which Jim Roos commissioned to be painted on the side of a brick apartment building owned by his housing agency is not art, violates the city’s sign code and must come down. The city’s sign ordinance requires signage to be no larger than 30 square feet in this zoning district. Mr. Roos’s anti-eminent domain mural is reported to be more than 360 square feet.
Read MorePosted on Jul 29, 2008 in News & Events
A St. Louis jury recently awarded property owner Bill Simon of Alton, Illinois, $2,871,200 for the 2 acres of land he owned just north of the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis. Simon purchased the property in 1999 for $523,000 as an investment. Attorney Paul Henry explained “He bought it because the area had potential.”
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