KBIA Local
(2002-12-03)
JEFFERSON CITY
(KBIA) -
A federal court ruling that awarded 410-thousand dollars to 13 landowners along the Katy Trail still isn't over. Another 285 claims have been filed by landowners along the trail between Saint Charles and Sedalia. Landowners became angry when the former rail line began being used as a trail under the Rails to Trails Act. Because the land was under an easement and had not been purchased from the landowners when the rail contract expired, the land had not been properly acquired for trail use. Estel Fretwell is with the Missouri Farm Bureau, which went to the defense of landowners. He says the case is not over. "This is something that has been going on for quite some time...it goes back to 1986 when the stat first expressed an interest in developing the then-abandoned Katy railroad line into a hiking and biking trail," he says. "The concern was that this was land owned by the landowners that had been granted to the railroad by way of an easement...which of course, the property owners still retained title to the land. State law has been very clear through the years that when a railroad line is abandoned and the easement expires, then the property returns to the full control of the landowner, so there was a property rights issue at stake here."
Last month's ruling came from a U-S Court of Claims judge in Saint Louis. It stipulates that the remaining cases be settled within the next year. © Copyright 2012, KBIA
