Agenda - Council - 05/31/1983 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Region will need, it is premature to make such recommendations at this time. Nevertheless~ it's useful to analyze available information on the subject. By law, compensation is due property owners when a public facility (for example, a highway, airport or landfill) impinges on the owners' use or enjoyment of their property. The concept is known as "reverse" or "inverse" condemnation and, is frequently associated with.the building of public facilities. Under inverse condemnation proceedings, landowners must prove there is a diminuation in value or use of their property as a result of the location of the public facility. Although the law clearly permits compensation for diminished property value stemming from public facilities. For residents around landfills, the question is, what impacts will they suffer as a result of the landfill being located there? First, the miti- gation techniques outlined in this report can reduce most of the impacts upon the community and adjacent residents. Other problems, such as con- tamination of well water, have been evaluated and recommendations for action are being made to the Legislature for resolving these situations. What then, are the impacts that'could affect adjacent residents or devel- opers that would deserve compensation? Nuisances like noise and dust should be mitigated by the buffer zone. The buffer zone is crucial for shielding the community and adjacent resi- dents from them. In addition, the shielding effect of the buffer zone should protect the adjacent property from a potential decrease in market value. What remains is the perception of how the landfill affects the property and its market value. Prospective buyers consider many factors before purchasing a property, and they probably include adjacent land uses. Although the importance of adjacent land uses relative to other factors will vary from buyer to buyer. The location of property near a landfill or resource recovery facility may affect the buyer's desire to purchase the property. How- ever, measuring such as effect can be difficult. An example of how a landfill affected a community is the now closed Hopkins municipal land- fill. According to the city of Hopkins, its landfill has proven quite useful, even profitable. The area used for dumping in the 1950s is now occupied by a warehouse and an office building. Another part of the land used as a fill in the mid-1950s to early 1960s is a city park with four baseball diamonds. In a third area, a restaurant, a lumber company and part of a garage belonging to a gas station sit on the fill used in the 1960s. A final portion of the fill was closed in 1979. Part of this property is leased to contractors for storage purposes and a prefabricated building housing the city's sanitation trucks and equipment sits on another sec° tion. Although initially considered for parkland, this land is currently up for sale and is partially zoned commercial. 12