Road lawsuits could cost North Carolina hundreds of millions

The state owes landowners for imposing restrictions on their property without paying for it

Two jury verdicts from Fayetteville this past spring could signal that North Carolina will have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to many dozens of property owners across the state for taking partial control of their land without paying for it.

The two verdicts were rendered in April in lawsuits that two families filed against the N.C. Department of Transportation. Statewide, more than 500 similar lawsuits have been filed, including about 80 in Cumberland County and Robeson counties, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said.

The litigation stems from a law called the Map Act.

The law is now repealed, but when it was in effect, the NCDOT used it to try to hold down the state’s costs of acquiring land for road and highway construction. If a piece of property was along a proposed route, the department put tight restrictions on what property owners could do with it.

Read more: http://www.fayobserver.com/news/20180730/road-lawsuits-could-cost-north-carolina-hundreds-of-millions