A Better Mount Pleasant sends:
HOMEOWNER WINS FIGHT AGAINST FOXCONN AND
THE VILLAGE OF MOUNT PLEASANT
Today the Village of Mount Pleasant Plan Commission approved a new road plan for Prairie View Drive which will replace the current north end of Prairie View Drive, a road that runs west from Highway H into the Foxconn Development Area I. The first portion of the road will be a public street. There will be an intersection at the northwest corner of Prairie View Drive and West Prairie View Drive where current homeowners will be able to turn south and access their properties. The road will also continue west and become a private road that will service Foxconn’s manufacturing campus. East Prairie View Drive will be discontinued. According to Claude Lois, Mount Pleasant’s Project Director, Foxconn will pay for the new road and its contractor will install it pursuant to Village requirements.
Only one property owner in the Prairie View Drive subdivision, Jim and Kim Mahoney, have not reached a settlement to sell their property to the Village of Mount Pleasant. While the Village previously told the Mahoneys and all other property owners in that subdivision that it would acquire their access rights to the new roadway and therefore, acquire their property under eminent domain, it appears the Village has abandoned that plan and will allow the Mahoneys to continue to live in their 19-month-old home.
Kim Mahoney said she just found out yesterday when the Village forwarded to her a copy of the new road plans. She said they have not heard from the Village in almost two months regarding their property. The Village had only made one offer to buy their property back in April which the Mahoneys rejected. They made a counteroffer in the beginning of August to which the Village has never responded. Kim Mahoney is happy that she is not going lose her new home and says she would rather live on the Foxconn campus than settle for a smaller lot or someone else’s home. The Mahoneys now plan to add improvements to their new home including paving the driveway and walkways, and adding a patio but those improvements must first be approved by the Village Board because the area has been designated a “blighted area.”
When asked why she thinks the Village is allowing them to stay, Mahoney said she doesn’t know, but she has been very outspoken, challenging the Village’s authority to deny them access to the roadway and to take their property using eminent domain for purposes of handing it over to another private party. She said since 2006, Wisconsin law prevents the government from doing that to homeowners unless the property is needed for a public use, such as a railroad, a road or utilities. She said the Village has also been unwilling to consider increased costs to rebuild their home on a similar 1-acre lot in a nearby rural subdivision.
The question we now have is would other homeowners have chosen to stay if they had been given the choice? All homeowners were told by the Village of Mount Pleasant that they did not have a choice, that if they did not agree to sell, the Village would take their home using eminent domain and they would be paid less. It turns out, that wasn’t really the case.
THE VILLAGE OF MOUNT PLEASANT
Today the Village of Mount Pleasant Plan Commission approved a new road plan for Prairie View Drive which will replace the current north end of Prairie View Drive, a road that runs west from Highway H into the Foxconn Development Area I. The first portion of the road will be a public street. There will be an intersection at the northwest corner of Prairie View Drive and West Prairie View Drive where current homeowners will be able to turn south and access their properties. The road will also continue west and become a private road that will service Foxconn’s manufacturing campus. East Prairie View Drive will be discontinued. According to Claude Lois, Mount Pleasant’s Project Director, Foxconn will pay for the new road and its contractor will install it pursuant to Village requirements.
Only one property owner in the Prairie View Drive subdivision, Jim and Kim Mahoney, have not reached a settlement to sell their property to the Village of Mount Pleasant. While the Village previously told the Mahoneys and all other property owners in that subdivision that it would acquire their access rights to the new roadway and therefore, acquire their property under eminent domain, it appears the Village has abandoned that plan and will allow the Mahoneys to continue to live in their 19-month-old home.
Kim Mahoney said she just found out yesterday when the Village forwarded to her a copy of the new road plans. She said they have not heard from the Village in almost two months regarding their property. The Village had only made one offer to buy their property back in April which the Mahoneys rejected. They made a counteroffer in the beginning of August to which the Village has never responded. Kim Mahoney is happy that she is not going lose her new home and says she would rather live on the Foxconn campus than settle for a smaller lot or someone else’s home. The Mahoneys now plan to add improvements to their new home including paving the driveway and walkways, and adding a patio but those improvements must first be approved by the Village Board because the area has been designated a “blighted area.”
When asked why she thinks the Village is allowing them to stay, Mahoney said she doesn’t know, but she has been very outspoken, challenging the Village’s authority to deny them access to the roadway and to take their property using eminent domain for purposes of handing it over to another private party. She said since 2006, Wisconsin law prevents the government from doing that to homeowners unless the property is needed for a public use, such as a railroad, a road or utilities. She said the Village has also been unwilling to consider increased costs to rebuild their home on a similar 1-acre lot in a nearby rural subdivision.
The question we now have is would other homeowners have chosen to stay if they had been given the choice? All homeowners were told by the Village of Mount Pleasant that they did not have a choice, that if they did not agree to sell, the Village would take their home using eminent domain and they would be paid less. It turns out, that wasn’t really the case.
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