Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1956 [PAGE 794]

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1955]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

791

ACQUISITION O F P R O P E R T Y AT 1 2 0 8 W E S T ILLINOIS S T R E E T , URBANA, ILLINOIS (16) At its May, 1955, meeting, the Board of Trustees authorized the institution of suit to acquire title, through the exercise of the University's right of eminent domain, to the property at 1208 West Illinois Street, Urbana, owned by Mrs. Anna Marie Swinford and needed by the University as a portion of the site for the first unit of the contemplated Biology Building. It also authorized the employment of special counsel to assist the Legal Counsel in instituting and prosecuting the condemnation suit. Shortly thereafter special counsel were employed and a condemnation suit was instituted in the Circuit Court of Champaign County. After that Court, by denying a motion of the defendants to dismiss the University's petition, had upheld the right of the University to condemn the property and the sufficiency of its petition, the case was set for trial by jury upon the issue of the value of the property. A few days before the date set for the trial negotiations were resumed which resulted in a settlement accepted by University officers after all of the members of the Board of Trustees who could be consulted by telephone had individually approved that action. Under the settlement the University is paying Mrs. Swinford and her husband $34,000 (less their pro rata share of the 1955 taxes) for the property and has agreed ( a ) to permit them to continue to occupy and use the property until February 4, 1956, to enable them to rent rooms to students during the first semester of the 1955-56 academic year and to afford them such assistance as it can in obtaining student roomers for that semester, (b) to afford space in University housing, if desired, at the prevailing University rates during the second semester for the students who room in the Swinford house during the first semester, and ( c ) to move the personal property of the Swinfords, without expense to them, when they surrender possession of the property to any place in Champaign County designated by them. The settlement agreement further provides that neither the University nor the Swinfords shall be under any obligation to insure the buildings on the property or their contents, or to make any repairs thereto or replacements thereof, subsequent to September I, 1955, the date of the deed conveying the property from the Swinfords to the University. In accordance with the settlement agreement the Swinfords have executed a special warranty deed conveying the property to the University which has been placed in escrow pending payment of the amount to be paid by the University for the property which must be paid on or before October 1, 1955, and both the University and the Swinfords are proceeding to carry out the other provisions of the agreement. The total cost to the University of the property under the settlement reached is very substantially less than what the owner demanded, and does not greatly exceed the amount which the University had offered to pay for the property before the suit was instituted, and is within the range of appraisals obtained by the University from competent appraisers who would have testified as to the value of the property if the condemnation suit had gone to trial. It is the judgment of special counsel, the Legal Counsel, the Director of the Physical Plant Department, and the Comptroller that the University was and is amply justified in entering into the settlement and in incurring the cost for the property occasioned by it. While funds have been previously appropriated by the Board for the acquisition of the property and the closing of Illinois Street, an additional appropriation of $4,200 from the General Reserve Fund will be needed in view of the settlement reached and for expenses incurred, including legal costs. The Comptroller, the Director of the Physical Plant Department, and the Legal Counsel recommend that the above mentioned settlement and the purchase of the property upon the above mentioned terms pursuant to it be ratified and approved and that an additional appropriation of $4,200 be made from the University's General Reserve for this property acquisition under the terms and provisions of the settlement. I concur.

On motion of Mr. Herrick, the purchase of this property, in accordance with the terms of the settlement recommended, was authorized and the additional appropriation of $4,200 required was made from the