Owners lose land to water line

[flashl]

Justice rules the authority may take it, and it may be a while before payment is made

BALLSTON SPA -- About a dozen Saratoga County landowners lost their land to the Saratoga County Water Authority on Monday, and it may quite a while before they are paid for it.

State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Nolan ruled the water authority may take the land it needs to install pipes as part of a 26-mile, $67 million water line from Moreau to Malta. The water authority won the land over the owners' objections through eminent domain, also called condemnation.


The law requires the water authority to pay the landowners a fair price, but what that price will be is determined through a complicated and often lengthy legal process, said Mark Schachner, a lawyer for the water authority.

The water authority sought easements over more than 140 parcels and took legal action against approximately 20 landowners when they would not make a deal with the authority. Through the course of negotiations, the number of holdouts shrank to about 12, although neither Schachner nor water authority chairman John Lawler would be specific about who settled and who has not or for how much.

Times Union

[tularetom]

1. This is the "good" kind of eminent domain

Where the property is taken for public use such as a water line, road, or for a school. As opposed to the situation where private property is taken by the government to give to a private developer for a big box store or some other non public purpose. The only issue as the article points out is the frequent disagreement over fair market value of the land taken.

[lepus]

2. agreed

Public use for infrastructure, no problems. Private use for anothers private use, problems.