Charleston Urban Renewal v. Courtland Co.

• Decision Date: 30 October 1998
• Docket Number: No. 25015.,25015.
• Citation: 509 S.E.2d 569,203 W.Va. 528
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: CHARLESTON URBAN RENEWAL AUTHORITY, a public body corporate and politic, Petitioner Below, Appellee, v. The COURTLAND COMPANY, a West Virginia corporation, Defendant Below, Appellant.

509 S.E.2d 569

203 W.Va. 528

CHARLESTON URBAN RENEWAL AUTHORITY, a public body corporate and politic, Petitioner Below, Appellee, v. The COURTLAND COMPANY, a West Virginia corporation, Defendant Below, Appellant.

No. 25015.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted September 16, 1998.

Decided October 30, 1998.

Joyce F. Ofsa, Esq., Trina L. Leone, Esq., Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, Charleston, West Virginia, Attorneys for Appellee.

Charles B. Dollison, Esq., Kenneth E. Webb, Jr., Esq., John Teare, Esq., Geoffry A. Haddad, Esq., Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love, PLLC, Charleston, West Virginia, Attorneys for Appellant.

STARCHER, Justice:

In the instant case, the Courtland Company ("Courtland") challenges the authority of the Charleston Urban Redevelopment Authority ("CURA") to exercise the power of eminent domain to acquire land ("the Courtland Property") that is owned by Courtland and is located in downtown Charleston.

CURA wants to acquire and develop the Courtland Property as part of a unified business district, pursuant to the provisions of CURA's redevelopment plan for the downtown Charleston area. The Courtland Property is presently being used as a privately owned commercial parking lot and is wholly located within an area that was designated as a slum or blighted area by the Charleston City Council in 1984.

CURA and Courtland have been unable to agree on a purchase price for the Courtland Property. On March 30, 1997, CURA instituted eminent domain proceedings by filing a condemnation petition in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County. Courtland opposed the petition on a variety of grounds.

The circuit court concluded that the Authority was acting within its legitimate power. We affirm the ruling of the circuit court.

I. Facts and Background

The Courtland Property consists of four contiguous parcels of land that are all located on one city block in the downtown Charleston area. Courtland acquired three of the parcels in 1980 and acquired the fourth parcel in 1990. CURA is a public body and exists and acts under the authority of W.Va.Code, 16-18-1 to -29, the "Urban Renewal Authority Law." The overall purpose of urban renewal authorities like CURA is set forth in W.Va.Code, 16-18-2 [1951], that states:

It is hereby found and declared that there exist in localities throughout the State, slum and blighted areas (as herein defined) which constitute a serious and growing menace, injurious and inimical to the public health, safety, morals and welfare of the residents of the State; that the existence of such areas contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, necessitating excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, for crime prevention, correction, prosecution, punishment and the treatment of juvenile delinquency and for the maintenance of adequate police, fire and accident protection and other public services and facilities, constitutes an economic and social liability, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of communities and retards the provision of housing accommodations; that this menace is beyond remedy and control solely by regulatory process in the exercise of the police power and cannot be dealt with effectively by the ordinary operations of private enterprise without the aids herein provided; that the elimination of slum conditions or conditions of blight, the acquisition and preparation of land in or necessary to the development of slum or blighted areas and its sale or lease for development or redevelopment in accordance with general plans and redevelopment plans of communities and any assistance which may be given by any State public body in connection therewith, are public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and private property acquired; and that the necessity in the public interest for the provisions hereinafter enacted is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.

Urban renewal authorities such as CURA have the power of eminent domain pursuant to W.Va.Code, 16-18-8 [1951]:

An authority shall have the right to acquire by the exercise of the power of eminent domain any real property which it may deem necessary for a redevelopment project or for its purposes under this article after the adoption by it of a resolution declaring that the acquisition of the real property described therein is necessary for such purposes. An authority may exercise the power of eminent domain in the manner provided for condemnation proceedings, in chapter fifty-four of the Code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, or it may exercise the power of eminent domain in the manner now or which may be hereafter provided by any other statutory provisions for the exercise of the power of eminent domain. Property already devoted to a public use may be acquired in like manner: Provided, That no real property belonging to the municipality, the county or the State may be acquired without its consent. When an authority has found and determined by resolution that certain real property described therein is necessary for a redevelopment project or for its purposes under this article, the resolution shall be conclusive evidence that the acquisition of such real property is necessary for the purposes described therein.

The Urban Renewal Authority Law requires that before an urban renewal authority like CURA may exercise the power of eminent domain with respect to a particular parcel of property, there must be certain predicate substantive and procedural determinations and actions—by both the governing legislative body of the municipality or county that has established the authority, and by the urban renewal authority itself. See W.Va.Code, 16-18-1 to -29. We may omit a general discussion of these predicate requirements, because in the instant case it is not disputed that they were complied with and satisfied.

Specifically, prior to CURA's March 1997 filing of a condemnation petition regarding the Courtland Property, the following occurred:

On September 4, 1984, based on an area survey, the Charleston City Council declared that a specifically delineated "Project Area" in which the Courtland Property is wholly located was a "slum and blighted" area.¹ Based on the area survey and this declaration, an urban renewal plan ("the Plan") for the Project Area was prepared.

On August 8, 1985, CURA, having modified the Plan, adopted the Plan and recommended it to Charleston City Council.

On September 3, 1985, the Charleston City Council approved the Plan. The Plan, which is in effect until January 1, 2005, specifically provides for the acquisition and development of the Courtland Property as part of a unified commercial district.

On May 8, 1996, the Commissioners of CURA authorized the acquisition of the Courtland Property. Negotiations between CURA and Courtland about a purchase were unsuccessful. On December 11, 1996, CURA voted to initiate eminent domain proceedings, followed by CURA's March 30, 1997 filing of a condemnation petition in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County.

Courtland filed a "Motion to Deny" in response to CURA's petition. On July 17, 1997, the circuit court denied Courtland's motion, ruling that CURA had the right to acquire the property by eminent domain. Subsequently the circuit court reaffirmed its July 17, 1997 ruling, and at CURA's request appointed commissioners to determine what fair market value compensation should be paid by CURA for the Courtland Property.

Courtland appealed the circuit court's actions to this Court. In an eminent domain proceeding, once an order adjudicating the right to take has been entered, the landowners can apply for a writ of error and supersedeas notwithstanding the fact that the order is interlocutory in other regards. Syllabus Point 2, Handley v. Cook, 162 W.Va. 629, 252 S.E.2d 147 (1979). We accepted Courtland's appeal, but we permitted the valuation process to continue while we considered the appeal.

II. Standard of Review

The circuit court did not resolve any factual disputes in making the rulings that we are reviewing—rather, the circuit court applied the law to undisputed facts. We review a circuit court's rulings on questions of law de novo. Syllabus Point 1, Public Citizen, Inc. v. First National Bank in Fairmont, 198 W.Va. 329, 480 S.E.2d 538 (1996).

III. Discussion

Courtland assigns the following enumerated errors by the circuit court: (1) the court erred in not making findings of fact in allowing CURA's eminent domain proceeding to go forward; (2) the court erred in allowing the eminent domain proceeding to go forward because the Courtland Property is not slum or blighted property; (3) the court erred in allowing the eminent domain proceeding to go forward because the proceeding fails to state a specific intended public use; (4) the court erred in allowing the eminent domain proceeding to go forward because CURA failed to prove that there is a "public use" for the Courtland Property; (5) the court erred in allowing the eminent domain proceeding to go forward because CURA failed to comply with eminent domain procedures; (6) the court erred in allowing the eminent domain proceeding to go forward because CURA abused its discretion in relying upon an outdated determination of "blight;" and (7) the court erred in allowing the eminent domain proceeding to go forward because the circuit court failed to consider evidence that the Courtland Property is not blighted.

Taking up the assigned errors in the order that they are listed by Courtland, we first conclude that the circuit court was not required to make findings of fact in allowing the eminent domain proceeding to go forward over Courtland's objection.

The only factual issue raised by Courtland in response to CURA's petition was whether the Courtland Property and/or the Project Area were "slum or blighted" in March of...