Families
The Heston family:
Resident to Penn Twp.: Are you taking my house?
By ASHLEY ADAMS
Evening Sun Reporter
Article Launched: 05/16/2007 10:19:23 AM EDT
Dana Heston only had one question for the Penn Township Commissioners on Monday night.
“We want to know, are you taking our property by eminent domain?” she asked.
But Heston wasn’t going to get any answers from the commissioners.
Commissioner Joe Klunk, interrupting her, said the public-comment portion of the meeting was not a question-and-answer session with the commissioners.
With her husband, Bill, and one of her six children sitting by her side, Heston continued by asking the commissioners to sit down and talk with her about the future of her home at the corner of York and Center streets.
“Why are you afraid to talk with us?” she asked.
Burkentine & Sons Builders Inc. is planning to build a residential development called Brookside Heights on a 40- to 50-acre tract to the rear of the Hestons’ property.
As part of the development-and-engineering process, Burkentine paid for a traffic study that indicated a traffic signal is needed at York and Center streets.
To install the traffic signal, Center Street would have to be widened, meaning the Hestons’ home and easements from other properties would need to be acquired. Burkentine has already acquired easements and rights of way from the other property owners.
Heston has said her family is willing to move if offered fair-market value for their home, something the family said hasn’t happened yet.
She said Monday that township officials continue to meet with Burkentine, but won’t meet with her family.
“This needs to stop now,” she said.
Township Manager Jeff Garvick said after the meeting that he has met with the Hestons at least three times. He said he also has met with Burkentine to try and figure out a solution to this issue.
“The commissioners are trying to resolve this without using eminent domain,” Garvick said. “We want to work with the Hestons to come up with something fair. I don’t believe there will be any eminent domain.”
In a meeting last year, Klunk read a statement saying Penn Township never said it was going to use eminent domain to take the Hestons’ home. It was between the family and Burkentine.
But Dana Heston said Monday she has a message saved on her answering machine from Garvick offering the family an amount for their home.
Garvick said he did call the Hestons on his own to let them know what the “township was willing to put in the pot.”
At a February Public Works Committee meeting, Township Engineer Eric Bortner showed the commissioners preliminary plans for improvements to the intersection and said they would be sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for approval.
Dana Heston said she contacted PennDOT and the agency has no knowledge of any plans for the York and Center streets intersection.
“I want to know the truth about what’s going on here,” she said.
The Kohr family:
York Daily Record - Kohr family gives its side
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Lauxmont Farms owner Ron Kohr spoke at today’s meeting of the York County Chamber of Commerce Economics Club. For the full story, see Thursday’s York Daily Record. The following is the speech given by Kohr:
My name is Ron Kohr. I am here on behalf of my 22 family members that make Lauxmont Farms their home. Mr. Platts gave his presentation last month. In that presentation, he cited that his vision for a park will attract a percentage of the people that are already going to Lancaster County. Mr. Platts failed to talk about what is currently going on at Lauxmont Farms. At Lauxmont, we raise horses, cattle, chickens, produce, and crops. We host thousands of people every week for events on our farm. Our agriculture entertainment business, having events like weddings at our farm, is growing very quickly. The events on our farm employ hundreds of small businesses and support thousands of jobs. At your table is a resource list of some small businesses that repeatedly benefit from the current events at Lauxmont Farms. We bring families from all over the country to York County. The average wedding party spends over $20,000 employing the small businesses on the list, and this does not count what guests spend. Local hotels, caterers, photographers, restaurants, DJs, florists, limo companies, etc. all benefit. Heritage Hills has $18,000 of rooms and services reserved for a single event. Last year we did 128 events on our farm. This year, we are doing over 200, and next year, we will be hosting over 300 events. The events held at Lauxmont Farms pump millions of dollars into the local economy. Since 2001, we have been re-investing in our horse breeding programs. In the 1980s our farm was second in the nation with 80 mares, beating farms with 500, 600, and 800 mares. We were second in the nation only to Hanover Shoe Farms with 1,200 mares. With the passage of the slots program in Pennsylvania, the economics of breeding horses is better than ever. We currently have over 50 head and two nationally known stallions. Every acre of horse farm keeps five acres of farmland in production to produce feed, fodder and bedding. In the next several months, we will be opening a farm store and creamery. The farm store will provide local farm fresh produce, beef, chicken, and dairy products to the caterers serving events at the farm and the visiting public. The creamery will enable visitors to watch cows being milked and ice cream being made in our vintage Kohr Brothers’ frozen custard machine. Our family is committed to educating the public to where food comes from. Our current activities have great impact on York County’s economy. Last month, Mr. Platts made a presentation about taking our family’s farm for a park. Throughout the presentation, the word bankruptcy was used at least 20 times. This is misleading and unfair. We have been out of bankruptcy since 1996, and the farm is now profitable. As members of the business community, you certainly understand that Chapter 11 exists specifically to provide an opportunity to get back on solid financial footing. In no case should it ever be used as an excuse to seize someone’s property. The Platts’ presentation mischaracterizes this issue as a choice between preservation and development. Our family also wants to preserve the land and has offered a compromise that would place a conservation easement on the entire property, preserve vital areas of the family farm, and provide a park on the most historic part of the farm including the Indian grounds. To date, however, the county has not been receptive to our vision and instead proposes their plan, which would eliminate our homes and farm entirely. Lauxmont Farms has been our home for 34 years. Our parents made it a beautiful place in York County and opened our farm to the public at every chance. Our family has resided in York for over 200 years. We began farming in York County before the American Revolution. We lost our mother Laura Kohr, who devoted her life to the farm, two months ago but today our family farm is more diversified and profitable than ever. There are 22 members of my family living and working on Lauxmont Farms. Lauxmont is more than our homes and our livelihood; it’s our family’s way of life. Is a park truly essential enough to invoke the extraordinary government power of eminent domain, especially when the family has offered a compromise that would allow for a park and keep the family farm intact?
Peter Alecxih, Jr:
Private sector loss, public sector arrogance — yorkblog (May 3, 2007 09:17 AM) A Report on Eminent Domain From York County“…
Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
U.S. Constitution, Fifth Amendment
Before he began spending his days in law offices and courtrooms, Peter Alecxih, Jr. was building high-end homes in Lancaster and York Counties and running his small business, Greystone Construction, in Columbia. Today, instead of working construction sites, Alecxih is running a legal gauntlet after his purchase of 79 acres. But not just any 79 acres. He purchased land offering panoramic views overlooking the Susquehanna River near Wrightsville, land part of the acreage known as Lauxmont Farms, and land that spreads beneath the pinnacle of nearby Sam Lewis State Park. Most significantly, he bought what others wanted badly enough to take under eminent domain. Alecxih made the purchase for $1.75 million in April 2002 and then spent the next two years successfully gaining all the approvals from Lower Windsor Township to be the exclusive builder of 51 homes in a development he named “The Hill at Lauxmont Farms” … without knowing two out of the three York County Commissioners and two non-profit organizations, the Lancaster-York Heritage Region and Farm and the Natural Lands Trust of York County, had other plans for his property. They wanted his land, plus another 469 acres of Lauxmont Farms plus more land outside Lauxmont for a proposed 700-acre Susquehanna Heritage Park, a far larger park than the 85-acre Sam Lewis State Park up the hill.
Mark Platts, president of the Lancaster-York Heritage Region, offered Alecxih $5 million for his 79 acres. Alecxih refused. “Not only was the amount a fraction of the land’s true value,” Alecxih explains, “but selling the property would have left me without inventory for my his construction business.”
In May 2004, after the County Commissioners voted 2-1 to condemn his land under eminent domain, Alecxih offered the County Commissioners a compromise, a way he thought York County could get a free park and he could stay in business. “Though I’ve tried,” Alecxih says, “I have yet to have a good-faith discussion with anyone on the other side.” Even though the land was already seized, the governmental entity taking the land has one year to reverse itself, and Alecxih hoped he could convince two Commissioners, specifically Lori Mitrick and Doug Kilgore, to change their minds and avoid the expensive and protracted legal battle that has ensued.
“Since they wanted the open space at the top of the hill for their park, I offered to give them that portion, for free,” Alecxih says. “I had already planned to keep the top of the hill open as a common area for the development. So I offered to make this land a public area for people to come and enjoy. They could get their park, and they could get it for free, while I could still build houses and save my business. But the Commissioners wanted everything, the whole piece. They didn’t want any building on that hill.”
With his compromise snubbed, Alecxih fought the taking of his property in court but lost. Now he is fighting for a fair price for the land he lost. Meanwhile, he has received no money for his land, and his life as a small, successful builder has crumbled. “I’ve lost everything. My construction company is totally destroyed.” He laid off all his employees, cashed in his assets, and his parents and his brother have mortgaged their homes to help him wage a battle for the land’s fair market value.
This past October, York County’s Board of Viewers valued Alecxih’s 79 acres at $10.5 million plus interest. York County has appealed that decision, citing a County appraisal of only $2 million. Alecxih, who believes York County was fortunate to be ordered to pay only $10.5 million and who has received appraisals at $17 and $17.5 million, has countered. Next, Judge Warren Clark of Bucks County is assigned to hear both appeals, and to determine, finally, the fair value of the land, by jury trial. “I’m hoping,” says Alecxih, “that we’ll get in front of the judge and the jury late this spring or early summer.”
For Alecxih, life during these past few years suggests the legal maelstrom described in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. Yet, it all started so promisingly. In 1999, a client contracted Alecxih to build a home in a new development at Lauxmont Farms. That led to several more clients wanting Alecxih to build houses for them at the same location. Impressed by the high quality of his work, the Kohr family, whose 23 members live at Lauxmont where they raise animals and crops and run a wedding business, and their bankruptcy trustee, Leon Haller, offered to sell Alecxih 79 acres.
The Kohrs and Haller wanted to sell the parcel, because since the mid-1990s, the Kohrs have been subdividing and selling parts of what was the more than 1200-acre Lauxmont Farms to pay down the family’s $10 million debt. The late Ron and the late Laura Kohr fell into financial trouble when the standardbred race industry crashed in the mid-1980s, plunging their business of breeding and raising standardbred horses into trouble. Now their six grown children are committed to paying off the debt, but they cannot easily find qualified buyers. Recently, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court ordered some lots at Lauxmont, lots that are neither part of the Alecxih parcel nor part of the proposed park, to be sold at auction, and this land will be sold free and clear of liens, encumbrances and security interests. Certainly no property owner wants to experience what Alecxih has weathered.
“Most people think eminent domain means losing frontage to widen a road or to lay a pipeline,” says Alecxih. “They don’t know, just like I didn’t know, how the courts have expanded the definition from taking someone’s land to meet a need for a highway, a gas line, or something vital, to taking land to fulfill a want. I’ve also learned the law is skewed against the private landowner. They condemn your land, and then they set a price for it. In return, all you can do is try to fight, at your own expense. The law enables them to break you. In my situation, the County Commissioners went out and got my property appraised for $2 million, a sum millions below the real market value. Then they tried to make me accept it.”
Alecxih hopes his fight will help other property owners so they never experience his ordeal. His fight includes a plan to file a federal lawsuit charging York County with acting in bad faith and with misrepresenting the true value of the land to the public. “I believe I have a strong enough case to bring the light on this, so it can’t happen to someone else. I hope the next government agency thinks twice before they take someone’s property just because they would like to have it.”
Alecxih just might have public opinion on his side. In 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the use of eminent domain by the city of New London, Conn., after the city seized private property to sell to private developers. The city said developing the land would create jobs and increase tax revenues. Kelo Susette and others who lost their property sued, arguing the city violated the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause and that taking private property to sell to private developers was not public use. To the shock of many, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a 5-4 opinion, that the city’s taking of private property to sell for private development did qualify as public use.
Alarmed by this further deterioration of individual property rights, public opinion has swayed strongly against eminent domain, particularly when used to take private property for non-essential purposes. Spurred by the debate over the seizing of Alecxih’s land as well as other controversies, ten people including the three incumbents are running in the May primary election for County Commissioner in York County. For Alecxih and many others, no less than the U.S. Constitution with its assurance of individual rights for “life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness” is at stake.
By Marianne Clay, Research Associate, Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy
