This is regarding your editorial on the Highway 25 Bypass and
the Council of Governments’ lowball offer to property owners. I
will give you something to think about.
Editor,
This is regarding your editorial on the Highway 25 Bypass and the Council of Governments’ lowball offer to property owners. I will give you something to think about.
In 1988, the city needed 9,000 square feet of our property for a sewer line. We were about $30,000 dollars apart in the value of the property. The city used old values, our appraiser used current value. We went to court. Our attorney fees, $125 per hour for a local attorney five minutes from the court, was about $50,000. The city’s San Francisco attorney, at $225 per hour with four hours travel time to court and eight years of discussions, cost the city between $200,000 to $225,000.
My suggestion to COG is to be realistic in your offers to the Bypass 25 property owners. If not, the lawyers will be the only ones smiling.
Charles F. McCullough, Paicines
