Avoiding a time-consuming and possibly costly court battle, the city of Warrenton has resolved an easement dispute with one of the property owners along the route of a future sidewalk on North Highway 47.

The property is at the corner of Highway 47 and Hawthorn Drive. Warrenton’s Board of Aldermen voted on Sept. 1 to add the residential lot to a list of five other properties where eminent domain will be pursued for sidewalk construction.

Two additional properties were also added to the list of eminent domain condemnations with a Sept. 15 vote. The city needs to acquire those easements in order to build a sidewalk from Interstate 70 to Hickory Lick Road.

Rodney Haupt, who owns the Hawthorn Drive property and rents out the home there, spoke to The Record last week and said Warrenton’s initial offer for an easement on his land was unreasonably low.

“They want to take 1,400 square-feet of my property, and then they want to use another 1,000 square feet for (construction),” Haupt said. For that, a land acquisition company hired by the city offered him $300.

Haupt said the offer also didn’t include repairs to his yard after construction, or the cost of removing several trees within the future sidewalk’s right of way.

The amount of land being requested for the sidewalk is about 3 percent of the total area of the property, Haupt said. So he figures a fair price would be 3 percent of the assessed property value, plus the cost of the added expenses.

In total, Haupt said he asked the city for $1,500.

Haupt said he was willing to hold out and let the city take him to court in eminent domain proceedings, unless he was offered a fair deal for the sidewalk construction on his property.

The Record reached out to City Administrator Terri Thorn over the weekend to ask about the negotiations with Haupt. On Tuesday, Thorn replied that she and Haupt had reached a verbal agreement.

“Mr. Haupt and the city have agreed to the $1,500 amount, plus an amount to pay for the cost of four trees to be removed from the property during the construction,” Thorn said. She explained that the original $300 offer was based upon the appraised value of the strip being requested for the easement.

Thorn said she hopes the city can negotiate deals with the remaining landowners who haven’t yet agreed to easements for sidewalk construction along Highway 47. Right-of-way acquisition firm O.R. Colan is assisting with the project.

“The city is working with O.R. Colan to assist with final negotiations for those few remaining easements, to come to a satisfactory conclusion on as many as possible to avoid actual condemnation proceedings,” Thorn said.