Hope for Ballantyne high school after all?
CMS could use eminent domain to acquire Diocese land off Johnston Road, expert says
The following article appeared in the Feb. 19, 2020, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter on local business.
In response to our opinion the other day that the odds seem low for the school board being able to build a school on Johnston Road in Ballantyne, an astute Ledger reader points out that the odds might be better than they appear.
Even though the 80 acres of land owned by the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte is under contract to somebody else, the school board has an ace up its sleeve: It could use its power of eminent domain to acquire the property and pay a fair market value for it. Often, just the threat of using that power is enough to drive landowners to cut a deal instead of hiring expensive lawyers to pursue what is usually a losing case.
Courts have recognized that local governments have wide discretion to condemn land for public use, says Charles Szypszak, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Government who literally wrote the book on the topic (“Eminent Domain for North Carolina Local Governments, Law and Practice”).
And if the land the government wants happens to be under contract to somebody else? Doesn’t matter, he says: “You can’t transfer it and avoid eminent domain. They’re going to get the property.” Real estate lawyers tell us that purchase contracts typically include boilerplate language that provides an out if the land is targeted for government condemnation — though we can’t imagine how steamed the potential buyer, Woodfield Development, might be at the prospect of CMS blowing up the deal.
Of course, there’s still the matter that CMS says it doesn’t have the money to buy land in pricey south Charlotte, despite a $922M school bond passed by voters in 2017. The Diocese land is valued at $33.6M, and CMS would like the county to hand over some money.
New Ledger take: OK, this could very well happen … if the county can find a way to scrape together some cash for all or part of the parcel.
(Previous article: “BREAKING: CMS wants new high school in Ballantyne but lacks money“)
