Real Estate & Property Law

Property Split in Half

By Alan Ackerman

Loudoun Times

Sam and Uta Brown soon may be in a position to answer the question, "Can a working farm survive inside town boundaries, with a major road running through it?"

The Browns insist the answer is "No."

Purcellville Town Manager Rob Lohr said the town has always worked and will continue to work with the Browns to preserve the farm. At the same time, Lohr said, one of this council's top goals is to get the Southern Collector Road finished. It has been on town planning maps for 25 years, and now runs from A Street at Route 690 along the southern edge of the town's boundaries, to the southern edge of the 16 acres in question.

Sam Brown and his brother Timothy, of Middleburg, own the 16 acres just outside town limits. They also own 40 acres within the town limits -- all protected by a conservation easement -- and 45 acres to the south. Sam Brown farms most of it as Crooked Run Orchard, a pick-your-own orchard and farm that attracts up to 20,000 visitors a year.

Purcellville Town Council will decide Dec. 16 whether to proceed with plans to annex 16 acres of the Browns' Crooked Run Orchard into town. If the property is brought into town, the town will be able to use its condemnation power to extend the last unbuilt 1,300-foot section of the Southern Collector Road along the edge of the farm to East Main Street (Route 7) at Route 287.

The Southern Collector Road, if completed, will do little to relieve traffic on Main Street, Sam Brown said, and it will split his farming activities in half. He will be forced to drive farm equipment out onto Main Street and up the Southern Collector Road to get to his land.

"The benefit [to the town] is so small compared to the damage to the farm," Uta Brown said.

-The town has no feel for what happens when a working operation is split in half. Without a doubt the government will claim that this is simply another parcel with little use due to the conservation easement. The reality is that it is being used to the maximum.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on December 15, 2008 (boomark / email).