After a 12-year battle and a three-day trial, Montgomery County jurors said Montgomery Township must shell out between $5.85 to $7.5 million to the Zehr Family Limited Partnership for unfair compensation when the township took their 50-acre tract in 2010 by eminent domain for intended public park use, according to John Campisi of Lansdale Patch.
Lawyers said the township only offered the Zehr family $1 million for the piece of land that was later found to be worth $2.6 million, per the report.
The Patch report said an environmental engineer and real estate appraiser were called as expert witnesses in the trial.
The jury initially awarded $5.85 million, but it could go as high as $7.5 million with statutory interest, per the report. Nothing has been done with the tract to date.
"We presented a value of $5.85 million, and the jury rendered a verdict of exactly that amount," said plaintiff attorney David B. Snyder said in the Patch article. "I'm happy for the Zehr family that they finally got a fair price for their property after a 12-year-wait."
In October 2011, a Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas judge denied the Zehr family’s preliminary objection to the eminent domain procedure, according to a Patch article.
The township supervisors’ chairman at the time, Robert Birch, said the property was taken not just for its 50 acres, but also because “if we don’t do something, it’s going to be gone forever.”
“We don’t know what (the Zehr family) wants,” he said in the 2011 article. “If it’s a matter of money, it’s a matter of money. The courts will decide it, if we can’t reach an agreement.”
By enforcing eminent domain, the township thwarted a 200-home development plan by Wayne Rosen, according to the 2011 article, who initially wanted to build 80 single-family homes on the parcel.
Birch said in the article that supervisors “didn’t want any development there, and certainly not townhomes. If you look at the proximity of it, it’s directly across from Montgomery Elementary. That, in our view, would have been disastrous.”
It is unknown if Montgomery Township will appeal the jury decision, per the report.
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