Pittsfield Township Announces Michigan Avenue Project

Plans will be released in September for a major road widening and non-motorized pathway project.

According to this MLive article, “Funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation will alter the stretch of Michigan Avenue between Carpenter and Platt Roads from two lanes to five, with the fifth being a center turn-lane, as a way of reducing traffic congestion…. Plans also include a 10-feet-wide non-motorized pathway, new interchange ramps, and paved shoulders. The bridge at the U.S. 23 interchange will be replaced and constructed with right-turn lanes.”

Designs will be released in September. Those designs should identify whether additional right of way is needed, which would require acquisition of property through eminent domain. If condemnation is necessary, it could implicate significant just compensation issues, including reduced size, noncompliance, access restrictions, reduced parking, and increased development costs.  Further, when evaluating just compensation for partial takings like road widenings, it must be assumed that the newly acquired property rights will be exercised to the fullest extent allowed by law.

I am currently handling condemnation matters in the immediate vicinity of this project. The Washtenaw County Road Commission paved Textile Road from Platt to State. After obtaining dismissal of the first lawsuit due to procedural irregularities, new lawsuits were filed and we are litigating the just compensation owed to the property owners. This project is also in Pittsfield Township. Additionally, I am handling utility line condemnations initiated by ITC in an industrial subdivision located in Pittsfield Township.

Here is M Civ JI 90.12, the Standard Jury Instruction discussing partial takings, like road widenings.

This case involves what is known as a “partial taking”; that is to say, the property being acquired by the condemning authority is part of a larger parcel under the control of the owner.

When only part of a larger parcel is taken, as is the case here, the owner is entitled to recover not only for the property taken but also for any loss in the value to his or her remaining property.

The measure of compensation is the difference between (1) the market value of the entire parcel before the taking and (2) the market value of what is left of the parcel after the taking.

In valuing the property that is left after the taking, you should take into account various factors, which may include: (1) its reduced size, (2) its altered shape, (3) reduced access, (4) any change in utility or desirability of what is left after the taking, (5) the effect of the applicable zoning ordinances on the remaining property, and (6) the use which the condemning authority intends to make of the property it is acquiring and the effect of that use upon the owner’s remaining property.

Further, in valuing what is left after the taking, you must assume that the condemning authority will use its newly acquired property rights to the full extent allowed by the law.

If you are contacted by Pittsfield Township’s right of way agents about providing an easement, please feel free to contact me. Involving legal counsel early in the process when condemnation is threatened can be beneficial.