Governor's proposed bypass would likely spark land battles

INDIANAPOLIS -- If Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to build a tollway on the far outskirts of Indianapolis wins legislative approval, land-use experts said the highway would likely be challenged by landowners unwilling to have their land swallowed up for the project.\nThe bypass, dubbed the Indiana Commerce Connector, would cut about 75 miles through five counties east and south of Indianapolis, altering the landscapes of those largely rural areas.\nEminent domain -- the government's seizure of private land -- almost certainly would have to be used to acquire land for the tollway, which would be built and operated by a private company.\nSam Staley, director of urban land-use policy at the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank, said Indiana has recently made it harder to use eminent domain just for economic development purposes.\nDespite that, he said property owners in this case would have a difficult time challenging the state because courts would likely view the highway as meeting a wider public need.\n"A road is a public use ... so unfortunately property owners are going to be in a pretty weak position in terms of combating this," said Staley, who also is a senior fellow for the Indiana Policy Review.\nThe fact that a private company would profit by building and operating the road could help farmers and other property owners challenge government attempts to seize their land, he said.\n"This is a gray area, and we're going to have more and more of these questions coming up across the nation as more and more states realize the things Mitch Daniels is doing are pretty cutting-edge," Staley said.\nIt's unclear how much of the tollway's estimated $1 billion to $1.5 billion cost would be spent to acquire land. Staley said that with most projects like Daniels' proposal, the majority of property owners cooperate and sell.\nDaniels has pitched his vision as a boost for Indiana's economy and a means to help fund the $2 billion extension of Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Evansville.\nThe plan needs the approval of the General Assembly, and even then the state probably would be several years from determining an exact route. Only then would land acquisition begin.\nDaniels said it could take six years before a ground breaking for the tollway.\nMick Wilson, president of the Morgan County Farm Bureau and a member of the county plan commission, said the governor's proposal is still new to most of the county's residents and "they're trying to digest it and form an opinion."\n"But there will be resistance when it comes to losing property -- no one ever wants to give that up," Wilson said.\nSteve LeMasters, whose 1,000-acre Shelby County farm is in the potential path for the tollway, doesn't like the idea of a highway rolling through the middle of it.\n"If they take some of my land, it could have a huge impact on my livelihood," he said Friday. "I just don't think they've thought this thing out"