Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1956 [PAGE 365]

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362

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[May 19

On motion of Mr. Swain, this recommendation was approved and the appropriation was made by the following vote: Aye, Mr. Bissell, Mr. Herrick, Mrs. Holt, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Megran, Mr. Nickell, Mr. Swain, Mrs. Watkins, Mr. Williamson; no, none; absent, Mr. Stratton.

CONDEMNATION OF PROPERTY AT 1 2 0 8 WEST ILLINOIS STREET, URBANA, ILLINOIS (23) T h e University now owns all of the property situated in the block bounded by Mathews and Goodwin Avenues and Green and Illinois Streets in the city of Urbana, Illinois, needed for the site of the contemplated Biology Building with the exception of that known as 1208 West Illinois Street. This property is owned by Anna M. (Mrs. Lloyd) Swinford and must be acquired before construction of the Biology Building can begin. Negotiations conducted by University officers with the owner, her husband, and their attorney have established that the owner and the University can not agree upon the amount of the compensation to be paid the owner for this property and she is unwilling to sell it to the University except at a price which University officers deem decidedly excessive and exorbitant. Therefore, it is obvious that it is necessary for the University to resort to its right of eminent domain in order to acquire title to this property at a fair and reasonable price. Accordingly, the Comptroller, the Director of the Physical Plant, and the Legal Counsel recommend the adoption of the following resolution: Resolution It is hereby resolved, found, and declared by T h e Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois that the following described real estate, situated in the City of Urbana, County of Champaign, and the State of Illinois, viz: The East Fifty-five (55) feet of the North Eighty-one (81) feet of Lot Twenty (20), and the East Fifty-five (55) feet of the South Thirty-eight and One-third (38J/3) fee of Lot Seventeen (17), of Joseph Nelson's Addition to the City of Urbana, Champaign County, Illinois, is needed by the University of Illinois, an educational institution established and supported by the State of Illinois, as the site of a building needed and to be constructed by said University for educational purposes and to enable said University to discharge its duties to the people of said state and for public use; that funds available for the purchase of said land have been appropriated to The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois by the General Assembly of the state of Illinois; that this Board of Trustees has negotiated with Anna M. Swinford, the owner of said land and with her duly authorized representatives for the purchase of said land at a price which this Board of Trustees considers fair and reasonable and which it finds constitutes the present market value of said land, but she has refused to sell and convey the land to T h e Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois for such price and continues to refuse to sell and convey the same to it except for a consideration and price which this Board of Trustees deems excessive and exorbitant and is unwilling, and has refused to pay therefor; and /* is further hereby resolved, found, and declared by said T h e Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois that the compensation to be paid by it for said land can not be agreed upon between this Board of Trustees and said Anna M. Swinford and she and it are unable to agree upon the purchase price to be paid her for the sale and conveyance by her thereof to said T h e Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois; and It is further hereby resolved, found, and declared by this Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois that, because of said need of said University for said land for said purposes and because the compensation to be paid said Anna M. Swinford as the owner thereof therefor can not be agreed upon between her and this Board of Trustees, it is necessary for The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois to take said land and acquire title thereto through the exercise by it of the right of eminent domain conferred upon it by law and to have the