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Acquiring Rail Corridors:
Introduction
Imagine opening the Sunday paper and finding the following announcement in the Real Estate section:
Sixty acres of riverfront property available for immediate sale. Beautiful views. Historic Structures included. Suitable for building. Prime wildlife habitat. Recreational features. Plenty of access to streets and highways. Income producing. Will go fast. Act now!
Wow! Eagerly, you call the broker for details. Yes, everything the ad says is true. However, there are some problems:
- The 60 acre property was assembled from 25 different owners, and deeds can be found for only about 20 of them. The available deeds are 100 years old and difficult to understand. It is also unclear whether the seller really bought all of the pieces outright.
- Several of the deeds say the land was sold "for the sole purpose of building a hunting camp." You want to build a public park on this land. Will you be able to?
- It is unclear whether you can convert this property into a park under existing zoning ordinances. In fact, your broker is not able to determine whether the property is zoned at all.
- Yes, the property is on the riverfront. But it was used as a marina, and an old fuel depot still sits on the property. Old fuel tanks could be buried on the property, perhaps leaking fuel.
- The marina structure, though dilapidated, has been listed as an historic structure. Any attempt to repair or tear down the structure will require multiple reviews and approvals. In the meantime, if you buy it, you must assume liability for any injury to people using it.
Despite these problems, the owner is asking you to pay a price per acre equal to what adjacent landowners have paid, even though those adjacent parcels have none of the title, zoning, environmental or liability problems this property has.
"No way," you say. There are too many problems. Still, the ad is right: it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The views are spectacular, and the property is historically important. If you don't purchase it, it will probably be subdivided and sold to adjacent landowners. You hesitate. Is it worth it?
This story highlights the dilemma faced by public agencies and private organizations interested in acquiring abandoned or unused railroad corridors for conversion to trails or greenways. In almost every case, railroad corridors present spectacular opportunities to reconnect cities and towns with bicycle and pedestrian facilities. These facilities follow historic transportation routes, parallel rivers, pass historic structures, provide close-to-home open space for wildlife preservation and outdoor recreation, and even help control non-point source pollution from highway and agricultural run-off. Even though the acquisition process promises to be as complex as any transaction you have ever encountered, it can be done!
The "Blue Moon" Problem
Railroads abandon lines on a fairly regular basis. However, when a public agency attempts to acquire a rail corridor, it is usually doing so for the first time, since most railroad abandonments occur locally only "once in a blue moon." Public agencies generally have no experience with rail corridor acquisition when they begin planning the acquisition. The railroad, on the other hand, seemingly knows everything about the line: acreage, quality of title, history, appraised value, other potential purchasers, environmental problems, taxes, carrying charges, liabilities, etc.
Given its knowledge and experience, the railroad may appear to have a strong upper hand. They have all the information needed to know what reasonable terms and conditions for purchase would be information they are unlikely to share with you as the potential purchaser. Instead, they are likely to start off asking top dollar for the property. They may then bargain down to a price that appears to be a tremendous concession, but which may still be far above the true value of the property. But how do you know?
The key is preparation.
Although the railroad seemingly knows more about the corridor than you do, here are some things you can learn through good research:
- Ownership: The railroad probably has only the original deeds under which it acquired the corridor. All title information must be locally recorded. You can research that information in local land records, including any zoning ordinances, subdivision rules, or other restrictions on the use of the property.
- History: Have there ever been environmental problems with the corridor? Accidents? Spills? Railroad records may not be available for all activity on the line, but you have access to the local library's newspaper archives. They may reveal a wealth of information about the history of the corridor that the railroad doesn't know.
- Condition: The corridor is local. The railroad's property manager's office is almost certainly not in the local area. In fact, it is highly likely that the railroad's representative(s), who is responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of miles of track, may have never actually seen the corridor. You can obtain permission from the railroad to conduct an on- the-ground inspection.
- Taxes and Charges: The railroad probably pays local real estate taxes and complies with other local ordinances. These are all public records that may provide clues as to how the local tax assessor's office values the corridor.
The point here is not to provide an exhaustive account of every piece of information you need for a successful negotiation. Rather, your "information deficit" is not necessarily as debilitating as you may think. With the right team and good research, you can overcome this information deficit and prepare for successful negotiations.
Remember, if building rail-trails were a baseball game, actually acquiring the corridor would usually occur during the sixth inning. It is not the first step in a rail-trail effort. It is also not the end of the effort design, construction and management all lie ahead. Just as the sixth inning of a baseball game must be preceded by the first five innings, there is a logical progression to rail corridor acquisition as well. This book, based on the experiences of hundreds of rail-trail projects that have been successfully completed, is designed to help you get to the negotiating table, and then, to successfully negotiate a winning deal for your community.
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