Elizabeth City officials jumped the gun last year when they unveiled plans to construct a 187-acre aviation-related business park before they secured the cooperation from key landowners.
Even though city officials now say the park has been scaled back to 67 acres, they indicated they would use eminent domain to seize a critical strip of land from the unwilling landowners that is key to the project. Without that land there would not be enough width to taxi airplanes onto the property from the nearby Elizabeth City Regional Airport.
The proposed Elizabeth City Aviation Research & Development Commerce Park would lie across a state road that runs adjacent to the airport. The city would manage the park. The airport is home to the U.S. Coast Guard and a General Aviation facility run by the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County Airport Authority.
The city was able to negotiate an option to purchase 67 acres from willing sellers, but the Hall family, which owns adjacent land, doesn’t want to sell it. City documents and site plans show that city officials planned to take the Hall’s land to assemble the 187 acres.
Randy Hall, his sister Sybil Baccus, and his mother, Valerie Hall, own all, or are part owners of, five tracts making up 110 of the 120 additional acres sought by the city. They say they do not want to sell any of their land. Randy Hall said he doesn’t want to sell the property because he lives adjacent to the farmland, grew up working it, and wants to pass his share on to his sons.
The planned park will not be contiguous to the existing airport property, but is situated across a state road. DRS Technologies officials, an aircraft repair company that operates out of a new hangar on the airport property, indicated the company would lease a lot and build a similar large hangar in the new business park. The street would have to be temporarily closed when airplanes are moved from the airport to the business park.
Randy Hall said he didn’t think the city could use the power of eminent domain to take the family’s land for the purpose of building industrial and commercial facilities to lease to private businesses such as DRS Technologies. He said City Manager Rich Olson “bullied” his 78-year-old mother in an attempt to get her to sell.
In January, Randy Hall’s wife, Pam, complained to state Sen. Marc Basnight that the city was planning to use public funds to take their land. In response to an inquiry from Basnight’s office, airport authority Chairman Wayne Perry assured Basnight by letter that the 67-acre Phase One of the project did not require any land from the Halls.
“Our Airport manager has spoken with Mrs. Hall on numerous occasions. Given his efforts, I am surprised that Mrs. Hall believes that we would attempt to use her property against her will or that the Hall family property is required for the ARDCP,” Perry wrote.
Condemnation threat
Despite Perry’s assurances to Basnight, Hall continues to believe Olson was going to try to get some of their land.
In August, Olson wrote the Halls and offered $86,170 for a 2.5-acre strip of land for an “obstruction-free zone” adjacent and parallel to the planned aircraft taxiway. Randy Hall said the obstruction-free zone would not be an allowable purpose for the city to take their land under eminent domain.
After rejecting the offer, he said he suspected that Olson might relocate a planned sewer line over to his family’s property as another justification to acquire the same strip of land. He said condemnation for a sewer line is allowable only if the location of the line is the only alternative.
On Oct. 5, Olson wrote the Halls informing them that pursuant to the city’s power of eminent domain the city officials would be entering the Halls’ property on or after Nov. 5 to “conduct such surveys, examinations, borings and other investigations as may be necessary or expedient to perform work associated with the development” of the aviation park.
Hall learned last week that the most recent site drawing shows a sewer line on the Hall family property. He said that no previous drawings shown to him had a sewer line on their land.
On Oct. 30 the Halls sent a letter to Olson making clear they think that the city officials are not authorized to enter the Hall’s land because the city does not have the right to condemn any portion of the Hall’s land. “Finally, we do not appreciate the strong arm tactics being utilized by the city to force us to do something which we do not wish to do with our land,” their letter concluded.
He said he expects the city to continue to devise ways to seize portions of the Hall’s land or force them to sell it. The first public hearing on the proposed park is scheduled for Wednesday.
Park relies heavily on public funds
Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank County, has been the key politician in moving the project forward. The Daily Advance of Elizabeth City credited Owens with securing the first grant from the N.C. Department of Commerce.
The majority of the money for the 67-acre, $10.4 million first phase of the project is coming from public funds. The Department of Commerce provided a $3.5 million grant in February and Golden LEAF approved $2 million Thursday. The remainder is expected to come from the city, the Rural Economic Development Center, the Commerce Industrial Development Fund, a Community Development Block Grant, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the federal Economic Development Administration.
The only private money anticipated is a $1.8 million advance lease payment from DRS Technologies.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.