THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 19, 1995 TAG: 9508190037
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
An 80-year-old widow who is fighting the condemnation of her home can stay there through Christmas, but she must leave by Feb. 15 to make way for a new school, a judge ruled Friday.
Circuit Judge Jerome B. Friedman also ordered the woman, Margaret E. Johnson, to let surveyors and site assessors onto her property on Nov. 18, to prepare for the school's construction.
In return, Johnson will get $1 million for her six-acre home at 957 First Colonial Road, near Virginia Beach General Hospital, where she has lived for 44 years.
The School Board plans to build a new Linkhorn Park Elementary School on this site and an adjacent 9 acres.
Johnson has fought the condemnation since October, when the School Board offered her $260,000. In March, the board condemned the property for $1 million, but still could not get Johnson to agree to leave.
Friday's ruling apparently ends the dispute, unless Johnson defies the court order.
Johnson could not be reached for comment Friday. She refused to sign the judge's order, even though she was present in court.
School Board Chairwoman June T. Kernutt said she sympathizes with Johnson, but the school system needs her land. In that area of the city, she said, few large parcels are available.
``We have always been very cooperative and done anything we could to accommodate Mrs. Johnson,'' Kernutt said. ``The School Board will always try to balance the needs of the children against actions that we may have to take that are uncomfortable or difficult to do. But we are the ones that have to balance those two issues.''
The controversy began last year when the School Board agreed to move the school, which is on Laskin Road near Hilltop. This is in the crash zone of Oceana Naval Air Station.
School leaders moved the school so it would not count against Oceana when the federal base closure commission decided which bases to close.
After studying several sites, the School Board settled on Johnson's 6 acres and an adjoining 9 acres owned by a family named Potter.
At first, the board offered Johnson $260,000 and the Potters $800,000. Both refused to sell. Later, the School Board raised its offer to Johnson to $1 million, but still she refused to sell. The board later paid $2.8 million to the Potters, and Johnson felt she should get the same amount.
School officials, however, said nearly half of Johnson's property is wetlands and cannot be built upon. Johnson said the land is wetlands because the city is pumping stormwater onto it from a nearby subdivision and shopping center.
In March, the School Board acquired the site by condemnation for $1 million. Since then, the board has asked Johnson several times when she would leave her home and allow site surveyors onto the property. She has always refused.
On Aug. 1, Johnson warned a School Board attorney that if any school personnel come onto her property, she would have them removed, according to court papers.
On Aug. 11, the board filed court papers to force Johnson off her property. The board originally asked that Johnson be ordered to move out by Nov. 18, but the judge extended that to Feb. 15.
The new school is scheduled to open in 1998. Site work is scheduled to start in the spring of 1996.
``We are sympathetic to Mrs. Johnson and what she's going through,'' Kernutt said. ``She's in a difficult position. But the School Board has been in a difficult position, too.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photo
Margaret E. Johnson will get $1 million for her six acres, where she
has lived 44 years.
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KEYWORDS: LAND CONDEMNATION VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB