By A.J. Hazarabedian
At Tuesday’s Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board will decide whether or not to begin eminent domain proceedings to acquire four parcels for the widening of Road 108.
As reported in the Visalia Times-Delta article, “Eminent domain on county board’s agenda,” funding for the project was approved in Spring 2009. The county needs to move quickly because the funding came from the federal stimulus which requires the projects be “shovel ready” and also requires that the money be used within a certain period of time.
The affected homeowners are mostly farmers and are upset with the quick timeline and feel “the county isn’t offering enough money to stem losses from lost product, moving fences or taking out equipment.”
The county is also working on another project along Road 80 and it seems they are experiencing similar problems as the widening of Road 108. The article mentions that city officials began eminent domain proceedings in September to acquire 14 parcels along Road 80 as negotiations with property owners were unsuccessful. Now, the article says, “a breakdown in negotiations on both projects has the county moving toward a court order that would allow it to move forward with the eminent domain process on the property owners who haven’t signed agreements with the agency.”
The Tulare County Board of Supervisors meets tomorrow, Tuesday, February 2 at 9am.