HAER Report

Land Acquisition

The BPC land acquisition policy obtained property in three ways: by donation or favorable purchase options; by establishing its own property valuations to negotiate with landowners for direct purchase; and when the first two methods failed, by condemnation. Throughout the course of the project, the BPC emphasized its goal of obtaining land at the lowest possible prices.

The first phase of land acquisition was well underway even before the BPC secured NYC-BEA authorization for the project in 1913. Commissioners used their social and professional contacts to solicit pledges for land through donation or favorable purchase options. Favorable purchase options allowed the BPC to acquire land from generous property owners at or below market rate. To ensure that these cooperative landowners would not feel cheated, the BPC promised that it would not reward holdouts by paying higher prices for land acquired later in the process. Beginning in 1913 when the BPC had the authority to acquire land, it proceeded to finalize its preliminary agreements with supportive property owners. Deeds for portions of the Butler property were prepared as early as March 1913. By mid 1914, the BPC reported that it had received substantial assistance from a number of cooperative property owners including Emily Butler, Frank Chambers, Glenn Ford McKinney, Scarsdale Estates, Scarsdale Company, and the Scarsdale Real Estate Company.(79) The cooperation from real estate companies may have reflected the realization that transforming the Bronx River from a public nuisance into an attractive parkway would have a highly beneficial effect on surrounding property values. These donations and favorable purchase options enabled the BPC to put together an almost continuous strip more than 4.5 miles along the river from White Plains, through Hartsdale, Scarsdale, and Crestwood, to Tuckahoe.(80)

Purchasing Directly from the Owner

Once the BPC secured these donations and received the authority to acquire land, it concentrated on obtaining parcels by direct purchase. The commissioners insisted that working directly with property owners was the most efficient way to proceed. They presented themselves as honest men whose strong character and impeccable public-spiritedness made them immune to the "vexatious municipal problems" that often accompanied public works projects and government land acquisition programs.The commissioners made it clear that they were immune to graft and corruption and that they would not be drawn into backroom deals or inflationary bargaining processes. To advance the project and save the taxpayers money, they were willing to devote considerable personal time to securing land at conservatively defined market values.(81)

The commissioners asserted that property owners would be willing to sell their holdings at reasonable prices if they felt they were being offered "uniformly equitable values" by a commission that demonstrated a strong commitment to fairness and efficiency. The commissioners criticized public works projects that relied heavily on condemnation, contending that the procedure was a great waste of time and money as well as an injustice to property owners. Condemnation proceedings invited speculation, which resulted in high real estate prices that raised costs "beyond all reasonable bounds." The BPC illustrated the disadvantages of condemnation by pointing out New York City’s experience in acquiring land for Bronx Boulevard. The narrow strip of land required for that project cost the city more than $840,000, which the BPC characterized as a grossly inflated sum. The BPC also pointed out that the Bronx Boulevard project created great hardships for property owners because the condemnation proceedings continued over a period of eight years, during which time the owners were deprived of the use of their land and received no compensation. The BPC supported its preference for direct purchase by citing cost comparisons between a number of other projects that used direct purchase and condemnation. In 1911, forty-eight parcels were acquired for highways in Westchester County for a total cost, including expenses, of $1,800 per acre. During the same year, twenty-two parcels of land were condemned at nearly $3,000 per acre, or nearly 66 percent more than the cost of direct purchase. The following year, condemnation costs for the project were nearly 3.5 times the amount of land acquisition by direct purchase.(82)