Eminent domain battle brewing
The houses are located on the block between 400 and 500 North on land that the Provo School District is eyeing for its rebuilding project of Timpanogos Elementary School.
Timpanogos Elementary is located across the street from the two houses on 600 West. The district has already purchased three other houses on the street and will ask the city to vacate the portion of the road cutting through the project area to complete the site acquisition.
In June, voters approved issuing bonds that will finance Timpanogos' $11.3 million rebuilding along with construction projects at other schools.
Most of the homeowners who have sold to the district currently remain as tenants, renting on month-by-month contracts. The district will give the residents at least three months' notice before condemning the houses, said attorney Mark Robinson, who is representing the school district.
Two homeowners are holding out.
One is Pedro Soto, whose house is valued at $93,300, according to Utah County records.
"I need to get money, then I will get (a lawyer)" to fight the district, he said.
The school district wants Soto and the other homeowner out by the summer. The rebuilding project will begin when the current school year ends, Robinson said.
"They need what they call a staging area," Robinson said, where the district can store steel and other building materials.
Soto's land will be part of the staging area.
The city will not vacate the affected portion of 600 West until the district purchases all five houses, Robinson said. So, while he continues to negotiate with Soto and the other homeowner, the district may start the legal process of eminent domain to meet construction timelines.
The process could begin as soon as the next Board of Education meeting on Jan. 9.
"If they go to eminent domain, the process is a deliberate and thorough legal proceeding with protections for property owners, but the district will get the property," said Jennifer Bolton, public information officer for the Utah Department of Commerce, which has an ombudsman for property owners in such situations.
Bolton said there is a process that must be followed if purchase negotiations fail.
The district must notify the property owner that it intends to take the property by eminent domain. A hearing is then scheduled before the school board at which the property owner may appear and comment, Bolton said in an e-mail interview.
"After that hearing the board may vote to condemn the property," Bolton said.
Soto and the other homeowner would receive money for their houses, based on the value determined by an independent appraiser.
Taking property by eminent domain is not a common process in Utah, Bolton said.
"Some towns and cities and districts never condemn," she said. "In some projects, a local government entity may condemn all the properties needed because negotiations were not successful. This is rare."
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com
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