Government to condemn land for Flight 93 memorial

[Newbian]

Link

PITTSBURGH ? The government will begin taking land from seven property owners so that the Flight 93 memorial can be built in time for the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the National Park Service said.

In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, the park service said it had teamed up with a group representing the victims' families to work with landowners since before 2005 to acquire the land.

"But with few exceptions, these negotiations have been unsuccessful," said the statement, which was to be released later Thursday.

The seven property owners own about 500 acres still needed for what will ultimately be a $58 million, 2,200-acre permanent memorial and national park at the crash site near Shanksville, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

"We always prefer to get that land from a willing seller. And sometimes you can just not come to an agreement on certain things," park service spokesman Phil Sheridan said.

Two owners account for about 420 acres the park service plans to condemn, including Svonavec Inc. ? which owns 275 acres, including the impact site where 40 passengers and crew died. About 150 acres are owned by a family that operates a scrap yard.

Most of rest of the land to be condemned are small parcels, two of which include cabins.

"It's absolutely a surprise. I'm shocked by it. I'm disappointed by it," said Tim Lambert, who owns nearly 164 acres that his grandfather bought in the 1930s. The park service plans to condemn two parcels totaling about five acres ? land, he said, he had always intended to donate for the memorial.

"To the best of my knowledge and my lawyer, absolutely no negotiations have taken place with the park service where we've sat down and discussed this," Lambert said.

Lambert said he had mainly dealt with the Families of Flight 93 and said he's provided the group all the information it's asked for, including an appraisal.

While he knew that condemnation was a possibility, he thought it was an unlikely scenario and that the park service and family group had wanted to acquire the larger parcels before dealing with owners of smaller properties.

"I was never told that May was the drop-deadline," he said.

In February, government officials and representatives of the 33 passengers and seven crew members killed when the plane crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, pledged to dedicate a memorial on the site by the 10th anniversary. Officials said then that more than 80 percent of the needed land had been secured.

United Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it was diverted by hijackers with the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol. The official 9/11 Commission report said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to wrest control of the cockpit.

So not only are they going to pay a reduced cost for the land they are condemning but are also spending $58 million dollars for this "park".

 

[Vette73]

Lets celebrate freedom by stealing Americans property... wait what?


This is BS and will make a joke out of this ?shrine?.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Lets celebrate freedom by stealing Americans property... wait what?


This is BS and will make a joke out of this ?shrine?.

But that resentment will be local only much like it is around Shenandoah National Park. Few of the people that visit and enjoy that park realize what the government did to create it and the ill will over generations it left behind.

 

[miketheidiot]

why does flight 93 deserve a 4 square mile memorial? I'm all in favor of more parks and monuments, but really, who gives a shit?

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Lets celebrate freedom by stealing Americans property... wait what?


This is BS and will make a joke out of this ?shrine?.

Hahaha couldnt have said it better myself. WTF is wrong with this country that we need to celebrate freedom by stealing people property and building a 2200 acre memorial to a single plane crash? 2200 acres, really? That is massive. How big is the vietnam memorial where some 58,000 names reside?

 

[lokiju]

Wrong on many levels.

 

[Schadenfroh]

eminent domain:thumbsdown:

This and property taxes show that we cannot truly own land.

 

[K1052]

Not surprised in the least, property owners ALWAYS get the short end of the stick if they get in the government's way.

A municipality that shall remain nameless condemned a building/property we owned in order to secure the land for a government building that never got built. They had the balls to come back 20 years later and ask us to repurchase the property at current market value and rebuild what was there before.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Lets celebrate freedom by stealing Americans property... wait what?


This is BS and will make a joke out of this ?shrine?.

Are you saying that 911 didn't change everything? Because 911 changed everything! /peter

 

[Fear No Evil]

Obama could stop this with a press conference. I doubt he will.

 

[Aimster]

Total number of visitors a year?
5

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Aimster
Total number of visitors a year?
5

Multiply that by 1 million to determine its budget.

 

[jonks]

If they were securing a couple acres I could maybe see some sort of possible weak shred of an argument about a national monument, but 500 acres?

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
imminent domain:thumbsdown:

This and property taxes show that we cannot truly own land.

If that was intentional, it was brilliant!

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: jonks
If they were securing a couple acres I could maybe see some sort of possible weak shred of an argument about a national monument, but 500 acres?

Yeah I don't see why they just don't buy ~10 surrounding acres + land for road access.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat

Originally posted by: jonks
If they were securing a couple acres I could maybe see some sort of possible weak shred of an argument about a national monument, but 500 acres?

Yeah I don't see why they just don't buy ~10 surrounding acres + land for road access.

Because you can't build a gaudy monument on only 10 acres.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: PottedMeat

Originally posted by: jonks
If they were securing a couple acres I could maybe see some sort of possible weak shred of an argument about a national monument, but 500 acres?

Yeah I don't see why they just don't buy ~10 surrounding acres + land for road access.

Because you can't build a gaudy monument on only 10 acres.

Now 2,200 acres.... that's the way to go. :laugh:

 

[eleison]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Lets celebrate freedom by stealing Americans property... wait what?


This is BS and will make a joke out of this ?shrine?.

If this goes through, I'm going to boycott it.

 

[BoberFett]

Repost, but still a worthy conversation. Edit: Not really a repost I guess, because it's a new article, but it's a continuation of the previous thread on a newer article.

Government cannot be trusted with anything.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=52&threadid=2261802

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: BoberFett
Repost, but still a worthy conversation.

Government cannot be trusted with anything.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=52&threadid=2261802

Not a repost but a update with new details.

Before they were told to take what we give or we will take it by force. Now they are taking it by force.

Also the Gov only talked with the 2 largest land owners. The smaller ones were locked out.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: BoberFett
Repost, but still a worthy conversation.

Government cannot be trusted with anything.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=52&threadid=2261802

Not a repost but a update with new details.

Before they were told to take what we give or we will take it by force. Now they are taking it by force.

Also the Gov only talked with the 2 largest land owners. The smaller ones were locked out.

Now that is the part that pissed me off the most about this.

 

[brandonbull]

Disgusting. Maybe if Congress wasn't so worried about getting Utah into a college football playoff, they could do the correct thing and prevent this land from being stolen. If the owners don't wish to sell, I guess that's too bad.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Another BS use of government power. The government should neve exercise eminent domain unless they can demonstrate an obvious necessity. Doing it just because they want to is not enough.

There is not even a compelling reason to build the memorial at the exact spot anyway. Stone Mountain is an example of celebrating and remembering people and history. But none of those depicted fought and died there.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
There is not even a compelling reason to build the memorial at the exact spot anyway.

Shhh, they need to build the memorial on top of the crash site because that's where the hidden base was that shot down the plane in the first place, and also where they hid the bodies of the flight that never hit the pentagon because it was a missile.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Lets celebrate freedom by stealing Americans property... wait what?


This is BS and will make a joke out of this ?shrine?.

This country long ago abandoned freedom. Hell, I'll probably be on some terrorist watch list for saying that.

Do you people here at P&N give a ****, or are you going to keep allowing this by voting R and D the rest of your lives?