RE: [at-l] Graymoor---

["Walt Daniels" <wdaniels@bestweb.net>]

>   There is always another
> alternative path
> or alternate site that the government could consider, but they don't, as
> with the Appalachian Power Line.
False, unless cost is no object. There is no close alternate route. If you
are willing to spend 10s of millions, perhaps, but it would involve so many
landowners that almost for sure one of them would not be a willing seller.
Much of the land in this area goes for $20-30,000 per acre and sometimes
much more.

Just north of Graymoor the AT crosses the NYC Catskill Aquaduct. The
crossing at this point is illegal (50 ft). We have also been negotiating
with them for about 20 years. Until recently their reply was "go around".
They now say they will process the paper work in about 6 years. I don't even
know exactly which 50 ft it is as the aquaduct is 300 ft underground with no
marking on the surface.

Saddleback is similar. They are a willing seller but not at a price anyone
would ever pay.

There always needs to be a way to deal with unreasonable people or
organizations.


> Eminent domain gives them an
> excuse to not
> even consider alternatives and to put pressure on people to negotiate with
> the threat of eminent domain over their heads.
>

With the NPS AT acquisitions, eminent domain has NEVER been used as an
excuse. It has always been as a last resort. Occasionally it has even been
to the benefit of the land owner since NPS cannot offer more than the
appraised value of the land. However if it goes to court via eminent domain,
the court can order NPS to pay more and they will. In some sense, eminent
domain is just court assisted negotiation. It differs little from an
agreement to binding arbitration and I would have no problem if eminent
domain were replaced with a requirement for binding arbitration.

We have had agrement with the friars on several occasions but at the last
minute they back out. It is not clear that they understand what it means to
negotiate, just as they did not understand what it means to violate an
easement. In one sense the land negotiations are really an attempt at
cleaning up the easement violation problem at a cost that is cheaper for the
friars than moving the offending building and sewer line. The funding is not
available forever. There is a Congressional mandate to complete the
acquisition process this year.

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