Beltway cutting into man’s S. Fayette property
Doesn’t consider Turnpike’s offer fair
About 45 years ago, Jerry and Judith Mazza seized an opportunity with another couple to buy and split a 50-acre, heavily wooded site straddling the Allegheny-Washington County line near South Fayette. Mr. Mazza has lived there since, building his house himself and leading his version of the good life.
But now, for the second time in three years, Mr. Mazza is negotiating with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to sell property for construction of the next segment of the Southern Beltway. He lost the house and 14.6 acres the first time and expects another 1.3 acres to go next as his property is adjacent to what will become the interchange between the new highway and Interstate 79.
“I worked a lifetime to get my ducks in a row,” Mr. Mazza said as he sat in the apartment he built adjacent to his garage and workshop after he lost the house. “Now, [the turnpike commission is] kicking my ducks over.
“It’s consuming. This is not just disrupting my life.”
Mr. Mazza is in the midst of negotiations with the turnpike over the value of the 1.3 acres, which include three large rental barns that generate $30,000 a year each. The commission has offered $200,000 for the property, which Mr. Mazza said he doesn’t think is enough for another portion of his life’s work.
“What’s fair market value for something you don’t want to sell?” said Mr. Mazza, now 70. “I’m not standing here with a gun telling them, ‘No, you can’t have my property.’ I just want to come out of this whole.”
Mr. Mazza grew up near his property and dropped out of high school at 15: “People ask me why I dropped out of school at 15 and I tell ’em it’s because they wouldn’t let me drop out at 14.” But he has a lot of street smarts and parlayed his skills into a union construction job.
When he bought the property at age 25, Mr. Mazza cut trees and sold the wood to clear the site. Eventually he built his home and raised some farm animals until that became too much work.
He quit his construction job at 38 to live off the property, but his wife became ill and died in her early 40s.
Shortly after that, he rented part of the site for a horse barn and show arena, followed by construction of the large storage barns that he leases to local plumbers and landscape contractors to store their equipment.
Mr. Mazza spends six months living off the land from late spring through early fall and six months in Florida, the past 15 years in the Lake Placid area.
But that serene lifestyle changed about 10 years ago when a representative of the turnpike knocked at the door of his County Line Road home.
The commission was going to be building a new toll road nearby to link Interstate 79 with the Mon-Fayette Expressway via Route 22, he was told, and part of his property would be taken for the project.
After more than six years went by with no action, he came up with the idea of creating a separate parcel out of the 14.6 acres the turnpike said it would want. The turnpike liked that idea and after talking up the price from the state’s initial offer of $387,000, Mr. Mazza sold the property two years ago for $525,000.
Then last fall, a couple of weeks before he was ready to leave for Florida, Mr. Mazza got another visit from the turnpike.
Because the interchange would be so close to his property, the agency said it needed more land.
As a result, the turnpike would take another 1.3 acres, mostly land where the rental barns sit. It will leave Mr. Mazza’s workshop about 100 yards from the turnpike
“I said to them, ‘ You’re giving me an unobstructed view of the interchange.’ ” Mr. Mazza said. “All I’m going to see is a chain link fence and a cliff down to the highway.”
In addition, the project will eliminate Mr. Mazza’s main access to his property from County Line Road and create a new one at least 3 miles away. In his mind, the turnpike’s offer to buy the site doesn’t take into consideration what he consider’s the “diminished value” of the remaining property after the sale.
Jeanmarie McLaughlin, the turnpike's assistant counsel, wouldn’t comment specifically on Mr. Mazza’s property other than to say, “We’re currently working with him.”
One of the items under discussion is whether Mr. Mazza could move the existing barns to another part of his property, which would change the appraised value.
This has been a longer acquisition process than normal, Ms. McLaughlin said, because when some owners found out years ago they would be in the highway’s path, they were eager to sell. As plans have been refined, the agency has determined it will need more land in certain areas, such as Mr. Mazza’s property.
In general, when the turnpike needs property for a project, its representatives notify the owner, have the property appraised and submit a price.
Therecan be some negotiations,but if the agency and owner can’t agree, the turnpike can take the property byeminent domain and pay the appraised price.
Ms. McLaughlin said under standard regulations, the appraiser must consider the effect selling part of a property would have on the remaining land and reflect that as part of the final appraisal figure, what she called “the after condition.”
Mr. Mazza said he can’t wait to be done with the process.
He’s already prepared for the future by having a contractor over the winter cut down part of a hill and fill in a valley near the future edge of his land.
“It’s daunting,” he said. “I know one thing: When they’re done, I’m going to make it nice again.”