By A.J. Hazarabedian
As a follow up to our last post, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors have decided to commence eminent domain proceedings against one of four property owners for the Road 108 widening project.
Jenna Chandler of the Porterville Recorder wrote, “they voted to acquire a 42 by 960 feet piece of William C. Hahesy’s land unanimously, continued two of the decisions to next week and the third was settled with landowners before the meeting started,” in her article, “Supervisors push forward on Road 108 project.”
At this stage, “commencing eminent domain proceedings” means that the Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution of necessity to acquire the property by eminent domain. A “resolution of necessity” is the government agency’s formal decision to acquire property by eminent domain and is the last step they must take prior to filing an eminent domain action.
In the article, Britt Fussel, an assistant director with the Resource Management Agency, explained, “even though we are pursuing resolutions of necessity…staff still wants to meet with property owners to negotiate purchase prices before ending up in court.”
The article also mentions that two of the other properties, which were to be discussed, were postponed until another public hearing as the county and landowners needed more time to negotiate.