During Monday, Oct. 12 city council meeting, there was a discussion on acquiring properties via eminent domain.
The City of Clovis will acquire portions of three properties on Shaw Avenue from DeWolf Avenue to Leonard Avenue in order to Widen Shaw Avenue. The city provided the property owners with written offers to purchase part of their properties in early 2019.
The city continued negotiations with the property owners in 2019, but in early 2020 talks stalled and throughout the rear there have been no improvements in the negotiations. The city believes that in order to continue with the current Shaw Avenue project that they must take these steps in order to mitigate delays.
For this action the council needed four yes votes to approve the resolution and due to Councilmember Mouanoutoua’s absence they needed to approve it unanimously.
Councilmember Ashbeck said that this is not the end of the conversation and that conversations with the property owners will continue.
“This is just to sort of start the process, we don’t ever like it when it comes to this point,” Ashbeck said. “I think the most important thing about this which we don’t do very often, is that the conversations will continue.”
There was no public comment from the property owners, however they were present during the meeting.
The council voted unanimously to pursue actions on eminent domain but will continue to try and reach agreements with the property owners.