Butler settles its land dispute with Wendy’s
County to pay $800K for land needed for the widening of Tylersville Road.
After years of legal wrangling, the Butler County commissioners settled an $800,000 right-ofway acquisition deal with Wendy’s that was needed to complete the recent Tylersville Road widening project.
The Butler County commissioners approved the settlement on Monday for an amount that was higher than the county wanted to pay but less than the $1.4 to $1.5 million the fast food chain wanted.
“At the end of the day you could go in front of a jury with this and anytime you go in front of jury you don’t know where you’re going to go,” said County Engineer Greg Wilkens. “You take your best shot and maybe cut your losses from what a jury would award.”
The $7 million widening project to make Tylersville Road at the Interstate 75 interchange in West Chester Twp. safer and less congested for the 50,000 drivers who travel it daily was done in two phases and was completed last summer. The construction cost was approximately $4.9 million, and property acquisition cost $3 million.
The county had to deposit $420,866 with the Butler County Common Pleas Court when it sued the fast food giant in February 2019 to get land that was needed for the second phase of the widening project. The deposit allowed the project to proceed while the parties haggled over the price.
The commissioners had a caveat to the approval. As part of the settlement, Wendy’s wanted to place a sign in the area where the county’s sanitary sewer system is located. Commissioner Don Dixon said the Wendy’s sign was not on the property the county took for the project, so he doesn’t know why it wanted to locate a new sign in the county’s utility easement.
“They’ve got a whole extra lot that runs parallel to their parking lot, they can go anywhere they want to go in there and not be over our water lines,” Dixon said. “They can turn it any way they want to turn it, upside down, sideways, any way they want to do it.”
He amended the settlement approval with a condition that the location of the new sign must be approved by the board, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter concurred. Commissioner T.C. Rogers said he agreed with the settlement but not Dixon’s requirement.
“I think you have to approve the settlement,” Rogers said. “It could be a different figure if you