Broward to pay $42M for Shaw tree farm land
Broward County will spend $42 million on a 38-acre property it previously had no intention of buying.
County commissioners approved the purchase Tuesday of a Dania Beach tree farm owned by the family of former Congressman E. Clay Shaw Jr. as part of a court settlement.
The Shaw family sued the county because a new Fort Lauderdale airport runway has had a negative impact on its Dania Farms property east of U.S. 1 near Griffin Road. Since 2012, when construction began on the runway that opened in 2014, the land floods frequently. Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Levenson agreed in September that the county was to blame.
The two sides have been try- ing to place a value on the loss to the Shaws but were more than $7 million apart.
Rather than have the county take its chances in court, attorneys came up with a mediated settlement that commissioners discussed during a private meeting Tuesday. After the discussion, they held an open meeting where they unanimously agreed to the proposed settlement.
In addition to the $42 million, the agreement calls for the county to pay $573,000 in attorney fees and $285,548 for expert witness fees and other litigation costs.
County Administrator Bertha Henry said the county is in negotiations with its insurance carriers to determine just how much of the cost will be
picked up by the carriers and what amount will fall on Broward taxpayers.
Barry Balmuth, an attorney representing the Shaws, said the runway-caused flooding has been a headache for his clients for the past six years.
“I think they’re satisfied that justice was done finally,” Balmuth said. “They didn’t want to sue the county. They tried for years to get the county to fix it, and the county refused.”
The runway that extends over U.S. 1 is just north of the land purchased by Shaw’s father in the 1930s.
The family turned down many offers to develop the property over the decades but left open the option because of the site’s desirable location close to the airport, Port Everglades, the Dania Cut-Off Canal and coastal waters. The tree-farm property had been zoned for a future hotel, which would not be developable under current conditions because of the intense flooding.
During last year’s trial, the county said it wasn’t responsible for the problems at the farm, which had a history of flooding that reHowever, quired regular pumping. Levenson disagreed.
The county initially put a $34.9 million value on what it should pay, while the Shaws sought more than $42.2 million.
if there was a trial held to determine the value, the county would only be acquiring a 7-acre portion of the property. The bulk of the payments would be for a “flow easement” across the other 31-acre portion of the Dania Farms property to cover the damage done by the periodic flooding.
County attorneys said going to trial would expose the county to significant additional legal costs and it would be unreasonable “to accept this level of financial exposure and wind up with … an undevelopable easement,” the settlement says. For the county to take the additional land through eminent domain proceedings, its value could be more than $4 million, with attorney fees and court costs on top of that, officials estimated.
The settlement says the purchase of the land will allow for “more robust airspace protection” at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and could be used for future development at the airport, Port Everglades or some other county purpose.
“If they can fix the drainage, they might be able to do something with it,” Balmuth said.