In 2015, Plaintiffs Shaw Farms & Land Company of Florida, LLC and Dania Place, LLC (collectively, "Shaw") filed an action for inverse condemnation against Broward County. The Complaint alleges that, as a result of the expansion of FLL's South Runway, the County affected a taking of the Shaw properties, which are located near Taylor Road and NE 10th Street immediately south of the South Runway. The Shaw properties at issue are approximately 40 acres. The Complaint alleges that the construction activities caused continuous flooding to the Shaw properties and eliminated certain vehicular access. To date, the County has been defended in the action by insurance defense counsel under a reservation of rights that purports to permit the insurance company to ultimately deny insurance coverage. We have recently filed suit against the insurance company, asking the trial court to declare that the damages claimed by Shaw are covered by the applicable insurance policy.
On September 1, 2017, the state trial court entered an Order of Taking against the County, concluding that the construction activities affected a complete taking of part of the properties and of more than 500 palm trees, plus the taking of a "flowage easement" over the remaining part of the properties. The Court ordered the County to submit, by January 13, 2018, a written offer to purchase the property interests at issue. The Order of Taking is not currently appealable but would be appealable after any trial to determine the value of the property taken. The written offer will expressly preserve the County's appellate rights.
The submission of a written offer is a requirement under Florida eminent domain procedure, and the trial court has imposed that requirement on the County in this inverse condemnation action. The County, through its defense counsel, has retained experts to provide an appraisal value of the Shaw properties at issue, and these experts are currently conducting this analysis. We will provide to you additional information between the time we receive the written analysis and the January 9, 2018, Commission meeting.
The authorization would permit the Office of the County Attorney to determine that a single or multiple written offers could be made based upon the separate property interests at issue. |