ARLINGTON, Va. — After strong opposition to a plan to acquire a nearly 100-year-old home in Arlington, county officials said they're no longer pursuing the property by eminent domain.
Board Chair Libby Garvey said county staff will negotiate to purchase some of the land as part of a bigger transportation improvement project, which would avoid tearing down the home that belonged to Karen Newman's family for decades.
In a statement, Garvey said, "These improvements cannot be achieved without using at least some of the property this home sits on. However, the County Board heard testimony from the property's conservator, and others, and therefore decided not to pursue eminent domain to acquire the home. Under the circumstances, the County will instead pursue negotiations to purchase two easements from the conservator and continue to work on the Multimodal Project to improve this intersection as much as it can."
In a March meeting, the county staff told supervisors that acquiring the land would make way for much-needed traffic and pedestrian safety improvements at Rolfe Street and Columbia Pike, which includes adding a traffic light and realigning the road into a four-leg intersection.
The county first recommended the board adopt a resolution that would allow Sandra Fortson, the homeowner's conservator, to accept the offer on the property. If the offer was denied, the resolution would authorize the county attorney to take the property by eminent domain.
Fortson was initially offered $627,000 by the county to purchase land at 1802 Columbia Pike in the Arlington View community. She spoke out against the plan because she was working to renovate the home to help keep it within the family.
"My aunt was very adamant about keeping that home in the family and it's also generational wealth," Fortson told WUSA9.
Fortson's attorney tells WUSA9 that he looks forward to negotiating a final deal, which appears to include temporary and permanent easements.
However, the Arlington branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) says it's still keeping a close eye on what develops.
Despite the county's new decision, the group sent a letter on Wednesday to Garvey and Mark Schwartz, the Arlington County Manager, which said, "Taking the home of anyone against their will—not least a home in an historically Black neighborhood, owned by generations of a Black family for almost a hundred years—should never be anything more than a last resort."
The NAACP calls the $627,000 an "insultingly low sum" that is not close to other home values in the neighborhood.
The full letter can be read below.
RELATED: 'Just want this to be over' | Woman fights to prevent Arlington County from acquiring family's home
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