Hartselle may condemn sliver of land owned by Sonic
Jul. 31—To improve a turn lane at Vaughn Bridge Road and U.S. 31 in Hartselle, the city needs a sliver of land it has so far been unable to acquire.
Sonic owns the land where its restaurant is located at 588 U.S. 31 N.W. City officials said they have had no luck reaching the Memphis, Tennessee, owner of the drive-in restaurant.
"They have been totally unresponsive to our overtures to ask them about part of that strip that we have to have," Larry Madison, attorney for the city, told the City Council during last week's regular meeting. "I am asking you to authorize me to contact them and if they do not respond, initiate condemnation procedures so we can acquire that right of way."
The Vaughn Bridge Road intersection improvements project has been planned for several years now, City Clerk Rita Lee said.
"We need to acquire less than 0.03 of an acre from Sonic to complete the project," she said. "It will not affect their operations in any way." — The project
The improvement project includes adding a left turn lane on U.S. 31 at Vaughn Bridge Road, but the most important improvement will involve the traffic light, Madison said. Currently, there is no left-turn arrow for drivers going west to cross the intersection of U.S. 31 or when coming the opposite way. He said people get stalled there now because they have to wait for traffic to clear before they can make a left turn.
"It gets kind of scary sometimes," Madison said. "This improvement is designed to alleviate that."
Jeff Johnson, director of the Hartselle Department of Development, told the council there were three portions of property needed to improve the road by the restaurant. Two of them have been acquired by the city.
But there is still one needed. It is a tiny strip of land — less than 4 feet wide — that lies near the Sonic drive-in canopy and a strip of holly bushes, he said. City officials have been unsuccessful in getting the property owner in Memphis to acknowledge the request to enter into a purchase agreement with them, Johnson said. He agreed the city attorney should take over at this point and try to contact the owner.
"If the property owner does not respond favorably to that the law allows a condemnation process so that after a certain amount of time we can go ahead and start construction on the project whether or not that property issue is settled," Johnson said.
Johnson said of the value of the strip of land, "it's a little amount of money, but we just need to get it going."
He said the city recently had its surveyors go back and survey the land again to see if the strip of land is needed. It is, he said.
"We were just making sure of ourselves before we upset anyone in Memphis," he said.
Madison said he hopes to have the matter resolved by the end of the fiscal year, which is Sept. 30. He said the property issue is not yet delaying the turn-lane project but it could if it drags on too long. Still, he does not want to proceed with condemnation yet.
"We like to try to talk to the individual first," he said. "We don't like taking someone by surprise by serving papers on them."
— jean.cole@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2361
