Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100051
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The commissioners set $383,575 as the value for the land, which Matson is being forced to sell through condemnation proceedings. He will receive $2,524 for temporary construction easements that will be necessary during the building of the facility, and $48,259 for "damages" to the value of Matson's remaining property in the Cloyd District of Pulaski County.
The condemnation case ended about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, after two days of testimony.
Both sides presented expert witnesses on the land's value.
Lowell Milton, a Lynchburg real estate appraiser hired by the authority, placed the value of the land at $335,316. Samuel B. Long, with Miller, Long and Associates of Roanoke hired by Matson, set it at $640,593.
Milton provided the five commissioners hearing the case with information on 11 tracts, and Long on eight, that they said were comparable to the Matson site. Much of Tuesday's testimony involved the detailing of those tracts and cross-examination by the other side attempting to show they were not all that comparable.
``After the take, Mr. Matson's left with an eastern tract and a western tract divided by a landfill,'' said Kendall Clay during Milton's cross-examination. ``What affect does a landfill have on the highest and best use of the property?''
``In my opinion, it has none,'' Milton said. ``We're looking at a residential timber tract and those trees, I don't think, would object to a landfill.''
Milton said the authority had provided him with data showing 2,231,000 board-feet of timber on the property. Tyler Blount, a private consulting forester from Wytheville hired by Matson's attorney, made a detailed survey and came up with 2,291,433 board-feet.
Blount and Milton both testified that the planned road to be built from Virginia 100 to the landfill would be of value to Matson by making his remaining timber more accessible.
Circuit Judge Colin Gibb sent the commissioners out of the room so he could hear testimony from Charles Maus, the authority's executive director, on other potential value to Matson from the project. He ruled that the commissioners should not hear that testimony. ``This information is coming too late to be considered,'' he said.
Maus testified that sewer and power lines will be built connecting from Virginia 100 to the landfill site, and available to anyone in between. He said the sewer line is to be operational by 1997.
Gibb said the case was already under way when the information came to the court's attention. He also ruled it out because, while the authority has committed to build the sewer line, that line has not yet been designed.
The commissioners, unlike traditional jurors, were allowed to take notes and occasionally ask their own questions of witnesses. They spent much of the first day viewing parts of the 950 acres north of Dublin, 2.3 miles east of Virginia 100.
The mountainous section of woodland is zoned as agricultural land. The county has no woodland zoning designation.
The landfill would serve Pulaski County, the city of Radford and town of Dublin for an estimated 50 to 70 years. Montgomery County also is considering joining. The Cloyd District landfill would replace Ingles Mountain landfill in Radford, which will be used up in 1997.
by CNB