The Lauxmont Mess
How York County’s Unsuccessful Attempt to Seize Private Property Through Eminent Domain May Cost County Taxpayers Up to $30 Million

April 18, 2008
By Marianne Clay, Research Associate

York County, Pennsylvania is blessed with many attributes, from fertile farmland to a diverse economic base. But, despite all its assets, the county is grappling with a looming worry. Neither the County Commissioners nor anyone else knows what the total price tag will be to settle the lawsuits stemming from the county’s unsuccessful attempt to create “Susquehanna Heritage Park” through eminent domain.

Susquehanna Heritage Park was to be a showstopper. Its original plan encompassed more than 900 acres of rolling hills running along the Susquehanna River just south of the town of Wrightsville in Lower Windsor Township. The park organizers envisioned a “magnificent heritage, recreation, and scenic park unlike any other place in our county, region, or state” with a museum, a “world-class heritage education” visitor center, and a waterway trail along the river.

Ambitious and supremely confident, the park organizers figured, if necessary, they had the constitutional right to take the land they wanted through eminent domain. And, they knew what they wanted: Lauxmont Farms, a site known for its natural beauty, acres of rolling pasture, a stone mansion, a panoramic vista of the valley, and access to the river. And, they believed they knew what to do: get the land and remove the Kohr family, whose 1996 reorganization following bankruptcy in 1989 required them to sell parcels of the 1000-plus-acre farm they have lived and worked on since the family purchased it in 1973.

The park organizers thought they had everything figured out, from the natural materials they would select to construct the Native People’s Heritage Center -- a portion of Lauxmont Farms was once the site of a Susquehannock Indian village -- to the movie that would greet travelers at the Visitor Center. Everything, that is, except the voters.

THE VOTERS SPEAK

The voters so disliked the idea of taking private land to create a non-essential and expensive park that they voted the park’s most public backers, County Commissioners Doug Kilgore and Lori Mitrick, off the ballot in the May 2007 primary election. The voters returned Steve Chronister, the lone commissioner to oppose the taking of private land to create a public park, and they brought in Doug Hoke and Chris Reilly. Both Hoke and Reilly, like Chronister, opposed this use of eminent domain.

“The county made a big mistake in seizing land for a park by eminent domain,” says Commissioner Chris Reilly, “and we’ve got to find a way to extract ourselves from our legal mess. What we want to do is figure out what it is going to take to end this fiasco.” The public taking of private land, Reilly believes, should be reserved for essential services, like roads and schools, and only as a last resort.

While the three commissioners now in office never supported the public taking of private land for a park, they are stuck with its time-consuming and expensive fallout. “We’re trying to figure out what it’s going to take – what number is needed – to put this horrible mess behind us,” Riley says. Most expect the taxpayers will pay millions before this story concludes. “The guess-estimate,” says Riley, “is $15 to $30 million.”

HOW THIS HAPPENED

So, how did York County get into this difficult situation?

The six-year saga begins in the summer of 2002 when Lower Windsor Township officials joined by planners, politicians, and preservationists began considering the idea of turning Lauxmont Farms into a park. The township wanted to preserve the farm’s expanse of open space. The township also feared, if parcels of Lauxmont Farms continued to be sold and developed for housing, the township’s costs, especially for schools, would soar, and taxes would have to be increased.

At first, the park proponents met quietly to avoid alerting the Kohr family, but this plan and the work behind it became known to the public when Commissioners Kilgore and Mitrick took office in 2004. Early that spring, in closed sessions, Kilgore and Mitrick made unsuccessful offers to buy the Kohr farm or various portions of it. Though the numbers discussed were never made public, the offers have been described as low. The Kohrs made a counter-offer in July. The county rejected it, and both sides dug in for a long fight. In November 2005, the commissioners voted 2-1 to borrow up to $11 million to acquire part of the farm and to take 411 acres of the farm by eminent domain. In January 2006, Leon Haller, a Harrisburg attorney and the trustee charged with administering the sale of the parcels of Lauxmont Farms to pay off the creditors, filed an objection. The Kohrs wanted to stop the county from taking their land, except for the 187-acre parcel known as Lakeside East, once the site of the area’s last remaining Susquehannock Indian village. In fact, the Kohr family still hopes the county takes this portion of their land and preserves it for posterity.
Back in May 2007, when both Kilgore and Mitrick lost their parties’ primaries, the voters not only objected to the public taking of private property to create a park, but they also worried about the high cost of creating and maintaining the grand park proposed. The voters also questioned the need for another recreational area when just a short distance away is the 85-acre Sam Lewis State Park. Though far simpler than what Mark Platts, a consultant who became the head of the Lancaster-York Heritage Region in February 2003 and remains at its helm, described in his Susquehanna Heritage Park presentations, Sam Lewis State Park has been offering a panoramic view of the rolling hills and the Susquehanna River winding below, for decades. In addition to Sam Lewis State Park, visitors can also picnic in the pavilion at nearby Kline’s Run Park that sits along the river.
THE COUNTY CHANGES ITS MIND
This past September before leaving office, Kilgore and Mitrick announced that the county was dropping its efforts to take the land from the Kohr family. Perhaps they hoped their statement might help erase this situation, but no such luck. York County is ensnarled.
“Not immediately offering the Kohr family fair market value for their land was a huge mistake,” says Reilly, “and now we’re stuck dealing with it. And, while the situation with the Kohr family is clouded by their legal and financial troubles, trying to seize their land by eminent domain was not a wise approach. Using eminent domain has polarized people. Certainly this land is unique, significant and valuable, and we’re all for the creation of parks and land preservation, but not this way. Trying to take their land by eminent domain for a park was a huge mistake and shows government at its worst.”
THE LAWSUIT AGAINST YORK COUNTY
Shortly before Christmas 2007 and before the present commissioners took office, the Kohr family filed a lawsuit against York County stating that the commissioners' efforts to take their land by eminent domain deepened the family’s financial problems. Who, after all, wants to buy land that might be seized through eminent domain? The suit also alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy to get the land for considerably less-than-market value and for a prolonged harassment campaign against the family that eventually drove their mother, the late Laura Kohr, to suicide. The lawsuit cites York County and its commissioners as defendants and says the Kohrs are seeking an unnamed amount in damages.
No wonder the current commissioners are bracing themselves. “We’ll either have to raise taxes or we’ll have to float a bond issue,” Riley says. “Either way, this bill is going to come out of the pockets of the taxpayers.”
SMALL BUSINESSMAN PETE ALECXIH
The bill is going to get higher before this story ends, but so far, the county has spent about $8.5 million. Peter Alecxih, who owns and operates a small residential construction firm across the river in Columbia, has received the biggest chunk, $7.5 million for his 79 acres that the county took in 2004. But, Alecxih believes the land, now a county park marked by a small parking lot and a sign “Highpoint Scenic Vista and Recreational Area,” is worth at least $17 million. Unless he and the county settle, his case will be heard in a jury trial on July 7, about four years after Mitrick and Kilgore began the process to seize this parcel known as Highpoint.
Of course, no one knows what the trial’s outcome will be, but the county will be responsible for paying any additional sum the Court might determine is fair compensation for the land value plus interest. Alecxih, explains York County solicitor Michael Flannelly, would be further entitled to receive statutorily mandated amounts for attorney fees and expenses. As for himself, Alecxih hopes his litigation will encourage governments to think twice before taking private land for non-essential public use. He also hopes other private citizens will be spared his experience.
When Alecxih purchased the 79-acre parcel that was originally part of Lauxmont Farms for $1.75 million, he had no idea what lay ahead. On settlement day in April 2002, he believed he had received the chance of a lifetime. For the next two years, Alecxih received all the necessary permits from Lower Windsor Township and made all his plans for the 51 French country homes he wanted to construct. But, while he was making his plans, the park proponents were making theirs.

In May 2004, the County Commissioners condemned Highpoint and declared Alecxih’s fair market compensation to be $2 million. Alecxih fought and lost the taking of his land, but he did get his compensation revised to $7.5 million when three more appraisals came in higher. Ironically, Alecxih once offered to leave the pinnacle of the hill on his parcel as open common space for all to visit and view, but his offer was snubbed. “Since they wanted the open space at the top of the hill for their park and since I wanted to save my business, I offered to give them that portion, for free, as a public area for people to come and enjoy. They could get their park, while I could still build houses and save my business.” The park proponents were not interested. They wanted all his land.

COSTS CONTINUE TO RISE

In addition to the $7.5 million already paid to Alecxih, the county has paid and will continue to pay hefty legal bills. The county’s involvement began when Commissioners Kilgore and Mitrick got behind the project in early spring of 2004. Since then and through February 22 of this year, the county has spent $805,764.15 in legal fees, according to Flannelly. Money was also spent on appraisals, Flannelly said, but these fees were either incorporated within the lawyers’ bills or never billed to the county. Additional costs for the park project were paid by the Farm & Natural Lands Trust of York County and the Lancaster-York Heritage Region, the two non-profit organizations pressing for the creation of this new park.

So what’s next? “Limiting the county’s liability, and doing what is right for Peter Alecxih, the Kohr family and for York County, and for all of us, as taxpayers,” says Reilly.

“Those who said the county could acquire this land and create this park without spending taxpayers’ money were out and out lying,” he continues. “And you can quote me. Their plan to cobble together grants and shift around various pockets of government money was just a ridiculous game of semantics. The money, for example, from the Modern Landfill Trust was to fund farmland preservation not to take farmland and turn it into a park. Instead, York County will have a big bill to pay and nothing to show for it.”

No wonder so many call this situation “the Lauxmont mess.”

Marianne Clay is a research associate with The Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy
©2008, The Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy