By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Florence City Council passed a municipal order at its regular meeting the week directing the city attorney, Thomas Nienaber, to file an Eminent Domain proceeding for the acquisition of real estate.
The property in question is at 283 Main Street in Florence. CAO Joshua Hunt explained that this issue has been a five-year effort to secure the piece of property.
“Last week there was a lot of back and forth between the ownership group and the city,” he said. “We discussed this same subject close to a year ago, council passed a similar municipal order at the time. We entered into additional negotiations with the owner, but they kind of went away. We don’t like to go this route — I don’t, and I don’t think council does, but that’s where we’re at.”
Church of Scientology at 283 Main, Florence. (Photo provided)
Attorney Nienaber explained further.
“We’ve worked on this for months and months with the Church of Scientology, and we were just unable to reach any type of reasonable agreement with them,” he said. “We have no choice but to initiate eminent domain proceedings.”
Mayor Julie Aubuchon interjected that as a result of this proceeding the city will be providing fair market value for any property the city takes.
“Correct,” said Nienaber. “Once the petition for eminent domain is filed, the court will appoint three commissioners who will assign a fair market value to the property. That money will then be paid
into the court.”
He explained that it is usually a two step process, the first being to determine whether or not there is a public purpose to be gained, and secondly to determine a fair market value for the property. He said the first part is obvious, that public parking is needed, as well as water mitigation.
“The church can, during the tenancy, go to the clerk at any time and withdraw the money,” he said. “The amount of property is only .559 acres, and the entire church sits on 2.8 acres, so it is just a smallpiece of the property. Hopefully we will get it resolved at this point.”
Hunt repeated what he had told the council members, that the intention is to add parking spaces and to fix the water problem. The property abuts the property owned by Florence. The public parking altogether is planned to be well over 100 spaces. He added that the two existing curb cuts will stay.
Council also passed the second reading of an ordinance approving a zoning map amendment for a 3.9 acre tract of land located at 8269 Pleasant Valley Road, from Agricultural Estate to Residential One. This also includes an adjoining parcel, that only has a number for identification.
The owner, Dan Hughes, has plans to divide the property into two one acre lots from the 3.9 acres, but there is a limit of one dwelling per acre, and the city has put a restriction on the deal that each lot has to be separately hooked up to the sanitary sewer system.
Both issues passed unanimously, the second one 5-0, because councilmember Patricia Wingo recused herself. The municipal order passed 6-0.
