Restaurant Eminent Domain - J.D. Armstrong and Associates, Inc.

A restaurant property located at the southeast corner of a State Highway and a local street is the subject of a right-of-way acquisition for the widening of the State Highway. Please review the descriptions next to each of the drawings below:

The property to be acquired for the road widening project is shown highlighted in red. Items within the taking area include asphalt parking and traffic circulation, approximately 20 parking spaces, landscaping, and the business identification sign.

The restaurant property has two driveways to the side street, and one driveway to the State Highway. There are 88 parking spaces on the site. Local zoning codes require a minimum of 56 parking spaces. The owners have experience and data to support their need for more than the minimum code-required parking. There is a business identification sign adjacent to the north property line. The main restaurant entrance is on the north side of the building.

The drawing shows the remainder property after the taking and accompanying roadway construction. No modifications have been made to retrofit the property to its new configuration. The State Highway will be widened to a four-lane divided highway. Though 68 of the original 88 parking spaces remain on the property, only about 55 of the spaces are useable. Unusable spaces have been marked with an "X." Landscaping areas and the business identification sign have been lost. The remainder property is damaged through the loss of its sign, loss of parking, and a non-functional parking lot.

The front parking area can be redesigned to accommodate traffic flow through the driveways and around the site. The business identification sign will be relocated in the landscaped area at the north end of the property. This plan provides 69 parking spaces for a total loss of 19 spaces from the before-taking condition. The property is still damaged, but not as bad as the "uncured" situation. This plan provides 14 more spaces than the uncured situation.

Jeff Armstrong was retained by counsel for the business owner and the property owner to evaluate the impacts that the right-of-way acquisition had on parking, access, and traffic circulation, and to identify any other potential engineering impacts to the property. A cost estimate was developed for construction of the "cure plan." The analysis is described in the captions.