Neither an Ellicott City landowner nor the Howard County School Board won in an eminent domain struggle in Howard County Circuit Court.
The six-member jury Friday awarded landowner Chris Pippen $825,000 for his 1.3 acres off Montgomery Road ? almost double the amount Howard County School Board offered.
“If [the school board] hadn?t taken my property, I could sell it for $1.3 million to any of a dozen buyers,” said Pippen, who bought the land three years ago for $250,000.
The school board wants the land to build a driveway to a new 788-seat elementary school across from Long Gate Shopping Center. The new school would relieve overcrowded elementary schools in the Ellicott City area.
Kurt Fischer, the school board?s attorney, said the land is worth $476,000 because of the wetlands on the property, the parcel?s shape and an ineffective intersection nearby between Montgomery Road and Old Columbia Pike.
“If you?ve got those small, narrow lots, could you really get those $900,000 homes at that location?” Fischer said.
The price of the land will not slow plans for the elementary school, which is set to open next year.
School officials plan to use only one-third of the property for the school. The rest will go to the Ellicott City branch of the YMCA, which borders Pippen?s property.
In addition, school officials have cut a deal to buy 22 acres for the school from the nearby Ellicott City branches of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and YMCA, which border Pippen?s land.
Several area schools are overcrowded.
Northfield, Worthington and Hollifield Station elementary schools in Ellicott City are slated to near 130 percent of their capacity by 2008, according to school system estimates.
