"Eminent Domain: Suit challenges county land seizure power"

Monday, July 26, 2004

Suit challenges land seizure power 
By Bob Driehaus 
The Cincinnati (OH) Post


A lawsuit before the state Court of Appeals is asking judges to restrict
Kenton County's right to seize land needed for the Cincinnati/Northern
Kentucky International Airport, saying Boone County should have more say
when it uses eminent domain to take property over owners' objections.
 
"It is incredibly easy for elected officials of another county to
justify condemning and taking property belonging to citizens of Boone
County. They never have to answer to the voters of Boone County,"
attorneys Bob Neace and Steve Dallas said in court documents. 

The Kenton County Airport Board owns and operates the airport, which is
in Boone County. The board cites a 1976 state law that it says gives
Kenton County the right to seize land in Boone County. 

Challenging that interpretation are two couples, including Jerry and
Mary Lawson, who rejected purchase offers from the airport to buy their
home and property on Linden Drive. The airport board forced the sale of
their land through condemnation procedures in late 2002. 

The airport determined it needed the land to complete a new north-south
runway that's due to open in late 2005. 

Neace and Dallas, who represent the Lawsons and another Hebron couple,
Eddie and Neil Jo Tanner, say the proper authority to decide on
condemning land for the airport should be the Boone County Fiscal Court,
rather than Kenton County, because the land lies entirely in Boone
County. 

"The Kenton Fiscal Court has for over six years been unable to determine
where to condemn  property for a new jail," the attorneys said. "One
reason the Kenton Fiscal Court cannot do so is there are political
consequences to its actions." 

Attorney Joe Baker, who represents the airport, said the property owners
are oversimplifying a process that gives Boone County residents plenty
of say. 

"The decision on the runway (location) is not made by the (airport)
board -- that's made by the Federal Aviation Administration," Baker
said. "There are numerous public hearings that go into that process that
give people in Boone County a chance to comment on that. 

"It's not a Kenton County versus Boone County issue. It's really a
regional issue. Even Cincinnati has input." 

Baker said the arrangement is similar to federal authorities' picking
the route of a new highway. While local input is considered, the
ultimate decision rests outside the county authority, he said. 

The unusual arrangement that gives Kenton County officials the authority
over the airport's affairs stems from its inception in the 1940s. In
those years, Boone County was mostly rural, with little capital to
invest in an airport, while Kenton County was the largest center of
people and businesses in Northern Kentucky. 

Boone County deferred to its larger neighbor and allowed Kenton County
to buy the land for the airport. In exchange, Kenton County assumed
control over operating the airport, including control over condemning
land for expansions.

 Who's on the board
  
 .  State law stipulates that the Kenton County Airport Board be
comprised of seven voting members -- six from Kenton County and one from
Boone County.


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