Tiffany Semar
is one of countless families who bought homes in the River Bend subdivision off
of Olive long before ground was broken, or plans even laid out for the Highway
141 extension. The area behind her home was quiet, wooded space with the
occasional deer passing through. Now it’s home to a closed access
highway.
“Horrible,”
she says of the noise. “It’s hard to have a conversation in our front
yard or our back yard.”
About three
acres of the land where the highway now passes was once common ground belonging
to the subdivision. Many here believed it would always remain as it was
because they didn’t think it could be transferred.
“It’s common
ground and it’s not legally supposed to be sold,” another resident, Melissa
Hibberty said.
But when St.
Louis County officials were obtaining land for the highway back in 2010, they
decided that common ground should be part of the path.
“So the county
came in and said we will just condemn it and give you some money for it,”
Hibberty said. The sum was in
the neighborhood of $60 thousand. A low price for property in high end
Chesterfield, if it the transaction they say the county forced was legal at
all.
The
subdivision’s leaders filed suit, with a
trial getting underway where they’ll ask jurors to award them in excess of $2
million for the land they say should not have been taken at all.
Most here say
it didn’t have to come to this. They simply wanted county officials to
work with them on the highway’s routing, and help do something about the noise
where necessary.
“Little things
like that,” Hibberty said. “We didn’t need to go into taking all this
common ground property and turning into a highway in these people’s back
yards.”
Should the
residents win, they hope the money will be used on noise abatement for those
hit hardest. Though people like the Semars will tell you the damage has
already been done.
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