Md. Route May Catch Owners Unawares

Andrews's request for a list of the properties that could be subject to eminent domain was denied by the State Highway Administration. A similar request by The Washington Post was also denied. The state said the list did not have to be made public until the highway's plans are finalized.

"I think it's a terrible process that's very unfair to the affected people," Andrews said. "I think that anybody who might lose a portion of their property should be notified immediately or should have been notified before that this was at least a possibility, or a probability."

That's how Dale and Dennis McCarthy feel.

The Derwood couple, who live near Rockville and within the project's first phase, received notice in July that the state would be claiming much of their back yard. Despite paying close attention to the project, they said they were shocked to learn that 2,800 square feet of their property fell within the road's right of way, and they thought that the state should have notified them earlier.

Recently, they received the state's offer: $59,750 -- or about $21 a square foot.

To the McCarthys, however, the land is priceless. The trees and stream in their back yard are why they bought the property about 12 years ago, when it seemed as if the highway wouldn't come to fruition, Dale McCarthy said. It's where they spread their son's ashes after he was killed in a car accident 12 years ago at age 16.

Now they are worried that instead of a pastoral patch of woods behind their house, they'll have a six-lane highway running through their back yard. If they had known they were going to lose so much land, they would have sold the house a long time ago, Dale McCarthy said.

"There is no way we can stay in this house and watch the destruction of what we consider sacred land," she said. "Why didn't they tell us last year when the [real estate] market was better? It puts us in the worst position we could be in."

The offer "is not anywhere close to mitigating the damage to the property," Dennis McCarthy said. The highway "is going to make the house almost impossible to sell."

Assigning value to partial acquisitions is "very, very complex," said Joseph M. Miklochik, director of the Office of Real Estate for the Maryland Department of Transportation -- and much more difficult than pricing an entire parcel.

Appraisers have to consider not just the value of the land to be acquired but also damages to the remaining property -- all in a fluctuating real estate market. But Miklochik said the Highway Administration has assembled a team of some of the best appraisers in the state who are experts in this kind of real estate evaluation.

Once the price is set, the state is willing to negotiate, he said.

"We try our best to be as fair as we possibly can to the property owners," he said.

At first, Daniel Chow of Derwood said he thought the state's offer of $12,250 for 509 square feet of his back yard was fair. But then he thought about how the highway would completely change the character of the neighborhood. Will people still want to live here? he wondered.

What about the construction? The offer "won't compensate for all the noise, the pollution," he said.

But what's a fair price for having your back yard replaced with a highway? He doesn't know.

That's why he's hiring a lawyer.