March 29, 2024

Supreme Court favors landowners in CCRC reservoir project

The highest court in the state of Iowa has issued their verdict in the case of the Clarke County Reservoir Commission’s (CCRC) reservoir project.

The Iowa Supreme Court sided in the favor of the appeal from the local landowners and not the CCRC. The judgment was issued Friday, April 10.

“We will read the opinion and figure out what the reservoir agency has to do,” said attorney Ivan T. Webber, the CCRC’s legal counsel on its reservoir project, during a phone interview the afternoon of Monday, April 13.

The original plan

The plan was for the CCRC to have a reservoir project in northern Clarke County that could provide a water supply for Osceola and Southern Iowa Rural Water Association (SIRWA) with an 816-acre lake, which could provide 2.2 million gallons of water per day.

West Lake, the current water source, doesn’t meet the needs of Clarke County and SIRWA.

The total project cost for the reservoir in the CCRC reservoir project is estimated at $37.6 million.

Funding for the project includes many sources, especially funding from the local-option sales tax.

2014 local ruling

On April 8, 2014, Judge Sherman W. Phipps of the Fifth Judicial District of Iowa ruled CCRC’s ongoing Squaw Creek Watershed project is for a public use, public purpose or public improvement as defined in the Iowa Code.

Therefore, CCRC may use the power of declaratory judgment and eminent domain in the reservoir project.

Eminent domain is the government’s power to take private property for public use by a state.

Declaratory judgment is a court review for acquiring land for a public project.

It authorizes CCRC to purchase land from voluntary sellers and exercise eminent domain for involuntary sellers within the area of the watershed project.

Appeal

An appeal from local landowners was filed May 6, 2014, in Clarke County Courthouse on the judge’s ruling in the CCRC court case.

However, the CCRC had the power to purchase land during the appeal process. Purchase agreements from local landowners were being worked out in the past couple of months.

In December 2014, Iowa Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal filed by local Clarke County landowners against CCRC.

The appeal date in February was scheduled much sooner than expected when it comes to the process of moving things along in the legal system.

The appeal was about if CCRC has the right to the power of eminent domain with its ongoing reservoir/watershed project.

Iowa Supreme Court set the oral argument for the appeal on eminent domain to be heard Feb. 18, 2015. It takes a period of a few months for the court to issue a judgment.

What next?

During a phone interview, Dave Beck, project coordinator for the CCRC’s ongoing reservoir project, said all questions should be addressed to Webber.

“They’re in the process of evaluating the court’s decision and what’s their next step,” Beck said.

Beck sent the legal judgment papers from the Iowa Supreme Court to the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune, and their content will be included in updates as this story progesses.

The CCRC’s monthly meeting is scheduled 9 a.m. Thursday, April 16, at Clarke County Development Corporation.

When it comes to any chance of an appeal from the CCRC, Webber said the Iowa Supreme Court has the final say in state law.

When asked how big of a blow this could be to the CCRC, Webber responded, “We’ll have to study that.”