THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280240
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
East Ocean View apartment owner Richard Kelly is settling for $1.68 million in his property-condemnation case with the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
That's about $1 million less than a citizens condemnation panel awarded Kelly in January.
The settlement, expected to be signed later this week, will free up some money for the agency to buy more property within its 90-acre redevelopment tract, east of Shore Drive. Property purchases had been suspended, partly because of the Kelly condemnation case.
The redevelopment authority had challenged the panel's $2.66 million award, asking Circuit Judge John E. Clarkson to set it aside.
Kelly settled, however, because the redevelopment authority held a trump card in the case, said Carter R. Anderson Jr., Kelly's attorney.
Under Virginia law, the redevelopment authority has the right not to acquire property it condemns if it doesn't like the price. The agency could withdraw its purchase offers up to 30 days after a court ruling.
``There was no way to hold their feet to the fire,'' Anderson said. ``If you win the case, you still lose, because they just back out of it. And Mr. Kelly would have not gotten anything.''
Anderson said the settlement did not mean Kelly did not deserve the $2.66 million.
Redevelopment officials and attorneys representing the agency were pleased with the settlement.
The $1.68 million is the same value placed on the property last March by a private appraiser working for Kelly, noted Robert Draper, director of housing and renewal services for the redevelopment agency.
Neither side would characterize the Kelly case as a precedent for future condemnation disputes in the East Ocean View project.
But Draper said he believed that a $2.66 million award could have encouraged other owners to go to court against the redevelopment authority.
Anderson, who said he represents other property owners in the project, contended that the agency might face even stronger challenges in the future.
Kelly's boarded-up, 102-unit complex was not producing income to support his mortgage, Anderson noted. Without the settlement, he said, Kelly would have had to endure more losses while the property decayed.
But an owner with a well-maintained, fully rented apartment building might stand a better chance against the redevelopment authority, Anderson said. by CNB