Hollidaysburg Council taking initial step to acquire Stowell Farm

Resolution under eminent domain will seek property condemnation

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- The Hollidaysburg Borough Council will move forward on creating a resolution to condemn the Stowell Farm property in its Gaysport neighborhood, a preliminary step in acquiring the land through eminent domain.

The decision came during the council's monthly meeting on Thursday when borough solicitor Nathan Karn informed the public that the extension to the purchase agreement deadline with the owners of Stowell Farm, BC Holdings, had not been finalized despite being approved by the council. The extension would have moved the agreement deadline from Dec. 31, 2023, to June 30, 2024.

Karn explained that "a few days before Christmas" he heard from the attorney for BC Holdings regarding the property and that "in addition to the things that we had already agreed to on the extension, that they also wanted a condition to be that the borough would rezone the Stowell Farm" from Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) to General Residential (R2).

Karn said that put him "in a very difficult position" because "the role of council in a zoning hearing is to sit unbiased and to make decisions based upon the presentation of the applicant and of the public."

"I was not comfortable being put in that position, so the only option that I believe I had was to just not do anything or say anything and allow the hearing to proceed without any bias or influence," Karn said.

He stressed that there wasn't anything inappropriate with BC Holdings wanting to make a condition of sale, but that the unique problem here "was that the borough was both the purchaser and the decision-maker on the zoning."

The council denied a petition to rezone Stowell Farm following nearly two hours of testimony on Jan. 11, therefore the purchase agreement extension was not approved by BC Holdings and expired at the end of 2023. Karn said that, following the public hearing, he gave them the chance to sign the extension anyway, but that BC Holdings refused.

Karn then told the public that he had explained to the council during an executive session that it could use the eminent domain code to take the property.

"If the council were to decide that they want to move toward condemnations, at their next meeting, they need to adopt a resolution under the eminent domain code," Karn said. "The authorization is the first step. It's a required step."

He said that once the resolution is passed, he can file a complaint under the eminent domain code "to indicate that the borough is going to take, presumably, what it was planning to do before for the stormwater retention pond," as well as an easement.

BC Holdings would then have 30 days to file preliminary objections, which Karn said "are very limited in scope" and are "things like 'you're not condemning the property for a public purpose'" or "we didn't follow the right procedure."

"But if we follow the rules and it's for a public purpose and then there really aren't any basis for preliminary objections at that point, we would have to tender to the property owner just compensation," Karn said.

He suggested that the just compensation would be the amount that had initially been agreed to in the sales agreement.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.