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THE STEPS AND PROGRESSION OF THE CITY OF INDEPENDENCE MISSOURI
GOVERNMENT AND HOW THEY ABUSE  “EMINENT DOMAIN”
 
  1. A wealthy developer decides he wants your property for a development project so he can become wealthier.
     
  1. For example, The Scott Hewitt & Mize Property at the Northeast corner of Selsa Road and 39th Street in Independence Missouri. We own 301 feet of frontage road property east of the railroad tracks and just west of the Little Blue River on the north side of 39th Street and consists of about 3 acres. It is just east of the new HCA hospital, which is under construction, in Independence, Missouri.
     
  1. The developer contacts the city staff and works out a deal with the city to obtain 1.13 acres of the Scott, Hewitt & Mize property. This could be because of promises to do something for the city or some other kind of compensation (i.e. the developer will build a private drive, call it a road, and connect it to the existing Selsa Road). The city staff says this is a needed road so the existing Selsa Road south of RD Mize Road and north of the railroad track, does not become a dead end. The city staff seemed to hide the fact that a new collector street will be connecting Selsa Road to the future Jackson Drive north of the Selsa railroad crossing causing this not to be a dead end road. This, of course was found through our own research. From a conversation we had with the developer several years ago, we were told that all the houses on Selsa Road were going to be classified as dilapidated and taken by the city and torn down. If this is the case, the existing Selsa Road will not be needed. The city staff also did not bother to explain to the Independence city council that there would be three roads connecting 39th Street to RD Mize Road and all three roads coming out within 1000 feet of each other. The roads consist of the existing Selsa Road, the new Jackson Drive and the new Little Blue Express Parkway.

    > View the Kidwell development site plan

     
  1. The developer submits an ordinance to the city for eminent domain to be used to obtain the 1.13 acres of the property that he needs. The developer puts an amount on the ordinance not to exceed .84 cents a square foot. This amount seems out of line with the nearby properties, while they are being sold or have sold for an average of $8.50 per square foot. 

    The ordinance for eminent domain is always an EMERGENCY ORDINANCE. This is done so that the property owner has limited time to find out before the City Council votes on the ordinance. This gives the property owner no chance to fight the eminent domain with a public hearing at the City Council Meeting.

    After this happened, Scott, Hewitt and Mize made several phone calls and investigated the use of “Emergency Ordinances” further by contacting nearby cities. We found out in almost all cases, the cities surrounding Independence very rarely use “Emergency Ordinances”. These cities use “Emergency Ordinances” exclusively for emergencies such as ice storms and “real emergencies”.

    A side item is that the developer back in 1999 had an option to buy the subject property before Scott, Hewitt & Mize purchased the property but decided not to act on his option to buy at that time. Not a real smart business decision for such a highly regarded developer in the city of Independence government eyes.

    > View Bill 03-600

     
  1. The city staff does not contact the property owner to let them know the eminent domain process has even started. The Independence city staff is supposed to work for the residents of the city, not for an out of town developer who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. The property owners find out about the eminent domain by either the newspaper or the city website. The website is not posted with the agenda for the following Monday’s council meeting until late Friday afternoon. To request to speak at a Monday Council meeting, you must notify the city clerk by noon the Friday before the Monday meeting. This is a problem because the agenda is not posted until after the Friday cutoff time. As a result your ability to get on the council meetings agenda to speak is eliminated.
     
  1. If you’re lucky, you may be able to find a way to stop or delay the eminent domain proceedings, as Scott Hewitt & Mize did by stopping the ordinance that would lock the wealthy developer into reimbursing the city. This ordinance failed with a 3-3 tie in March of 2004, which stopped the eminent domain progression. The 3-3 tie was possible because of the absence of one of the council members. This stopped the city from moving forward with the eminent domain because the city was not guaranteed to be reimbursed their cost by the developer. Even though Scott Hewitt & Mize won with a tie vote, which failed Ordinance 04-57, City Council Member Donald Reimal resubmitted the same ordinance two weeks later. The same ordinance with a different ordinance number was right back on the agenda two weeks later which put Scott Hewitt & Mize back to square one. The council member did this even though he made the following remarks in the Independence Examiner in 1998 in an article in regards to the voting to use eminent domain by the City of Independence. Council Member Don Reimal said people in his 1st District in northwest Independence are nervous about any group having the power to condemn property. "I have spoken against putting eminent domain in the hands of anyone besides the City Council," he said. "It should be used very carefully." This was found in a December 22, 1998 Examiner Newspaper Article. Apparently Mr. Reimal feels differently today. For several weeks Scott, Hewitt & Mize attempted to stop the eminent domain proceedings before the city council. The city council passed this Ordinance with a 4-3 vote in June of 2004.   

    > View Bill 04-79

     
  2. The City of Independence then signed a contract with the developer which guarantees the developer will reimburse the city all costs for acquisition of the property. This means court costs, attorney fees, the amount for the property being taken and any other expenses the city might incur.
     
  1. The city staff, at this point, according to Independence city codes, is to follow State of Missouri law for eminent domain. The City of Independence staff makes the very low offer of 83 cents per square foot. This is less than the original purchase price 6 years earlier. The average price for the area is approximately $8.50 per square foot. By state law, the city staff is supposed try to bargain in good faith to try to buy the subject property before the city files suit for eminent domain. The city staff did not bother to negotiate and went to the court house and filed suit against Scott, Hewitt & Mize.
     
  1. Once the City of Independence files suit to use eminent domain, the presiding judge appoints three commissioners to hold a hearing with all parties. At the hearing, the commissioners view the property and listen to testimony of both parties and appraisers, to award a dollar amount they believe the property is worth.
     
  1. The property owners must hire legal council and a commercial property appraiser to protect and represent them in the commissioners hearing and against the city in legal matters that could arise.
     
  1. The week of the scheduled commissioners hearing, the city staff increases the offer from 83 cents per square foot to $1.50 per square foot. Again the average price for the area is nearly $8.50 per square foot. This of course would have had to be approved by the developer (since he is the one actually paying for the property).
     
  1. The commissioners hearing takes place in the middle of February. The property to be taken is viewed by the appointed commissioners and both parties. The appraisers give testimony on what they believe the property is worth. During the questioning of the city’s appraiser by the Scott, Hewitt & Mize’s attorney John Gannan, the city appraiser was asked if he had any contact with the developer at all or on what the property should be appraised at. The contracted city appraiser answered this question with an answer of “NO”. Less than 5 minutes later he was asked if he knew the price of the HCA hospital property purchase. He replied “Kidwell told me it sold for $4.30 per square foot.” William Kidwell is the developer who is paying the city to take this property by eminent domain for his private drive into his development that the city is calling a needed road. The city appraiser also went on to explain his comparables were from other commercial properties that have sold in the past. The comparable sales are supposed to be in the area near to the subject property being taken by eminent domain. The city is using two comparables which are nowhere near the subject property. One comparable was located at Blue Ridge Cutoff and 35th Street in Independence, Missouri, where no development is taking place and is an older area in Independence. The second comparable was near 291 Highway and 210 Highway, in the Missouri River bottoms (which is a potato field). This comparable property has no commercial development within a 10 mile radius. This comparable is situated more than 10 miles from the subject property. These are the kinds of unfair tactics the City of Independence uses when stealing private citizen’s property by the use of eminent domain for wealthy developers.

    The commissioners came to a decision the end of February and awarded Scott, Hewitt & Mize L.L.C. the amount of $3.45 per square foot. Again the average price for one of the most valuable commercial areas in the Midwest is around $8.50 per square foot. We are still several dollars apart per square foot from the true worth of our property.
     
  1. Scott, Hewitt & Mize L.L.C. then files exceptions in the court of law to the amount awarded and looks forward to a trial by jury. Scott, Hewitt & Mize L.L.C. feels that eminent domain is wrong to start with, but when eminent domain is used by the city so a wealthy private developer can prosper, we feel extremely violated. Scott, Hewitt & Mize L.L.C. feel that a trial by jury of citizens like ourselves, will be our best opportunity to get fair market value, as are all the other property owners in the area.
     
  1. The developer pays the amount awarded by the commissioners to the City of Independence. The city staff pays the amount awarded by the commissioners and paid by the developer to the Jackson County court. The state law on eminent domain allows the wealthy out of town developer to take the property which Scott, Hewitt & Mize L.L.C. owned and start the construction. This can be done even though we have not had our day in court yet.
     
  1. Construction begins. The developer has hundreds of truck loads of dirt and rock brought onto the property which we once owned before it was stolen for the developer by the City of Independence and lays a road bed. This road bed in some places is elevated ten feet higher than the lay of the Scott, Hewitt & Mize property that still remains. The road bed has the appearance of a lake dam. The developer is building the road bed and the city should be held responsible for what is happening to the remaining two acres. Measuring the width of the road bed, that is suppose to be 75 feet wide, with a 30 feet wide temporary construction easement, it measured 130 feet in width in places. This is 25 feet wider than is allowed per the eminent domain blue prints. The city, along with the developer, has also created major flooding on the Scott, Hewitt & Mize property along with major flooding on the Jackson County Parks property. The flooding was so bad that the walking and bike path were completely under water for hundreds of feet. This is how the City of Independence and a wealthy developer treat their own hard working property owners.
     
  1. From this article and website alone, all Independence residents should pack their bags and move because their property and houses are not safe from this city government. It can be taken at anytime. It takes thousands of dollars to protect your property from this kind of communistic takeover so a wealthy developer can become even wealthier.

    Scott, Hewitt & Mize, along with their attorney, John Gannan, have filed a lawsuit against the City of Independence. With the help of expert witnesses and use of vital evidence, we plan on making the City of Independence accountable for this deplorable taking of our property. We are hoping that after this eminent domain trial is over, the city staff will think twice before they use this kind of power against hard working citizens for the benefit of wealthy out-of-town developers. This type of "abuse of power" should not and can not be tolerated by the citizens of Independence, Missouri.

 

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