Dread and Defiance in the Connector's Path

An owner who accepts the offer would sign a contract, proceed to settlement and receive a check. If the property owner rejects the state's offer, the state can still seize the property in two ways.

For vacant land, the state can ask a county's board of property review, a three-person panel appointed by the clerk of the Circuit Court, to decide the "just compensation" to be paid. In most road projects, Larson said, that occurs in about one-third of the cases. For land with a home or business, the state can ask a Circuit Court jury to decide the value. Fewer than 5 percent of cases involving homes or businesses end up in court, he said.

Larson said the state aims for residents to find a new home and vacate their property within one year of the state's offer. The state tries to help people relocate, he said, but it could seek an eviction notice from a court if a property owner refuses to cooperate.

"Our goal is to make this as easy on the property owner as we can, not to just rush them out," Larson said.

Christy Graybeal said she and her husband, Ben, 32, have yet to get a return call from the appraiser whom the state hired to determine the value of their home. Their new kitchen would be just about in the center of the intercounty connector, the couple said.

Christy Graybeal said home prices in the area are depressed because buyers know that a highway probably will run nearby. That makes her worry that an appraisal based on recent home sales in the area will come in lower than what would be needed to pay for a comparable home elsewhere. She said she and her husband wonder where they will find such a house -- one on an acre in a community with a quiet, country feel and reasonable commutes for both of them. Christy Graybeal is a graduate student at the University of Maryland, and her husband works as a structural engineer in McLean.

"We drive around and look at neighborhoods and try to imagine if we could live there, but so far we haven't found any," Christy Graybeal said. "We like the quiet of our neighborhood and the openness. Houses aren't jammed together. I don't know where we're going to find that."

She said she and her husband also worry that if they reject the state's purchase offer and end up in court, they could be forced to spend thousands on legal fees.

State Sen. Leonard H. Teitelbaum (D-Montgomery), a connector opponent, said he plans to introduce legislation that would require the state to reimburse property owners for legal expenses if a court determines that the state undervalued their properties by 10 percent or more.