As bulldozers moan in the distance, chewing up fences and plantlife, Miller is at peace among the warzone of splinters and trenches along South Harris Avenue.
t is light gray with lipstick red shutters.
It’s windows glint with transparency, lacking so much as a string from a spider web or a smear from a household cleaner.
On the ivy-strewn chimney that abuts the front of the home is a white wooden angel with arms outstretched.
“I need all the help I can get,” said Eleanor Miller, who lives at 500 S. Sterling Ave.
Her home of nearly half a century lies on land slated for the Sugarland Center.
ot along ago, Miller made a special trip to Jefferson City. She piled into a car with Virginia and Penelope Marth – whose home, 528 S. Harris Ave., is also being targeted for Sugarland – to hear the oral arguments in a case before the Missouri Supreme Court that could change the landscape in non-chartered towns such as Sugar Creek.
The case: City of Arnold v. Homer Tourkakis.
The implications: Whether a non-chartered city in Missouri can use eminent domain to benefit a private developer.
Tourkakis owns a dental office in Arnold near the intersection of Interstate 55 and Missouri 141. He is the last landowner standing in the way of the Arnold Commons shopping center, a tax-increment financing project requiring the demolition of numerous homes within an area determined to be blighted by the city.
When the city felt negotiations were no longer feasible – Tourkakis said the offer would not be enough to replace the four operating rooms at his office – it moved to enforce eminent domain.
Tourkakis sued, arguing that according to the Missouri Constitution only chartered cities have the power to use eminent domain.
Arnold, a third-class city without its own charter, argued otherwise, losing the case in Jefferson County Circuit Court last year. So, Arnold appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
As the Missouri Supreme Court ponders the issue, earthmovers and builders have been busy reshaping the property near Tourkakis’ business. On Jan. 18, one day after Tourkakis’ attorney argued his case in Jefferson City, a 117,000-square-foot Lowe’s opened for business next door.
ccording to Sugar Creek City Administrator Ron Martinovich, Miller’s home will be spared for phase I of Sugarland. The same cannot be said for the other two homeowners, Josie Webster and Virginia Marth, whose home is currently occupied by her daughter Penelope.
While Martinovich said Webster’s home lies on the fringe of phase I and may not be a necessity, the Marth residence is non-negotiable.
“We must have that property to implement phase I of the redevelopment,” Martinovich said.
He said price negotiations for the Marth property began at 150 percent of fair market value and have since risen “significantly.”
“We intend on acquiring it through a normal real estate transaction; we have never spoken of eminent domain,” Martinovich said. “What was in those letters we sent to homeowners was a normal process for a project like this one. There are subsequent ordinances the Board would have to pass before the city could initiate (eminent domain).”
Even if the properties owned by Miller and Webster duck phase I, they may wind up being non-negotiable in later phases.
Martinovich said phase II, however, won’t likely commence until 2009 or 2010.
“First, we’d like to get the supermarket in there,” Martinovich said. “Then we’ll see where we are.”
iller wants to put an end to eminent domain abuse in Missouri forever, no matter if a city is chartered or not.
“I think using eminent domain to serve a private developer is unethical and unAmerican,” Miller said.
This is why she has teamed up with Ron Calzone, chairman of Missouri Citizens for Property Rights, to gather the necessary signatures to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2008 ballot.
The amendment would provide Missouri voters the opportunity to end eminent domain for private use and restrict blight studies to plot-by-plot rather than allow it to speak to a whole area.
“My home is not blighted,” Miller said. “If you can find any evidence of blight on my property, I’ll move out tomorrow; all the blight is in those homes up by U.S. 24.”
For the eminent domain issue to earn a spot on the November ballot, 200,000 signatures must be gathered and notarized.
“So far I have about 200 signatures,” Miller said. “When it warms up a little, I’ll hit the streets.”
Miller said she intends on seeking the likes of U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver to help in her mission.
“Two hundred thousand human beings is a lot,” Miller said. “But I’m gonna do what I gotta do to get this thing fixed.”
s bulldozers moan in the distance, chewing up fences and plantlife, Miller is at peace among the warzone of splinters and trenches along South Harris Avenue.
She is occupied by her 2-year-old carpet.
“Got to keep clean,” said Miller, yanking the plug powering her vacuum. She leans over to snatch between her forefingers a bit of lent the vacuum missed. “Now, it’s time to do a little dusting.”
She’s someone who takes offense to the term “blighted.”
