Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1958 [PAGE 1115]

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BOARD OF TEUSTEES

[February 18

It therefore is necessary to request that the Board of Trustees authorize 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 Department, and the Legal Counsel recommend the adoption of the following resolution: Resolution It Is Hereby Resolved, Found, and Declared by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois that the following described real estate, situated in the City of Urbana, County of Champaign, and State of Illinois, viz.: Beginning at the Southwest Corner of Lot Two (2) in Block Three (3) of Burpee, Curtiss & Somers' Addition of Out Lots to Urbana, thence East on the North line of Illinois Street 63^3 feet, thence North parallel to the West line of said Lot Two ( 2 ) , 199.64 feet, thence West parallel with the South line of said Lot Two ( 2 ) , 63% feet to the West line of said Lot Two ( 2 ) , thence South to the place of beginning, is needed by the University of Illinois, an educational institution established and supported by the state of Illinois, as the site for a building needed and to be constructed by said University for educational purposes and to enable said LTniversity 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 Elizabeth I. Keener, the owner and purchaser of said land, 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 the 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 therefore; and It is Further Hereby Resolved, Found, and Declared by said the 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 Elizabeth I. Keener 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 the 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 the said Elizabeth I. Keener as the owner and purchaser thereof herein 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 bj' law and to have the compensation to be paid by it to said Elizabeth I. Keener and any and all other persons who may have right, title, or interest in and to said land therefor determined in the manner provided by law for the exercise of said right of eminent domain; and It Is Further Hereby Resolved by this Board of Trustees that the necessary and appropriate action be taken for the acquisition of title to said property by said the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and to have the compensation to be paid therefor determined by the institution and prosecution to completion of a proceeding in eminent domain in a court of competent jurisdiction, and that the Legal Counsel of said University be, and he is hereby authorized to proceed accordingly, to institute and prosecute an eminent domain proceeding in the name of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois for the acquisition of said land and the determination of the compensation to be paid by it therefor, and to employ such special legal counsel and others as he may deem necessary or desirable to assist him in the institution and prosecution of said proceeding.

On motion of Mr. Johnston, the foregoing resolution was adopted