As the Bay Area prepares to bear some of the brunt of high-speed
rail construction that will produce a passenger train from Los
Angeles to Sacramento, South County residents will have a chance to
get real answers to questions about the impact in their
neighborhood. At 7 p.m. Tuesday Bradley Matteoni, a private eminent
domain attorney, is volunteering her time to provide information
and host an open question-and-answer session at the San Martin
Lions Club, 12415 Murphy Ave.
As the Bay Area prepares to bear some of the brunt of high-speed rail construction that will produce a passenger train from Los Angeles to Sacramento, South County residents will have a chance to get real answers to questions about the impact in their neighborhood.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday Bradley Matteoni, a private eminent domain attorney, is volunteering her time to provide information and host an open question-and-answer session at the San Martin Lions Club, 12415 Murphy Ave.
Officials from the High-Speed Rail Authority will start the meeting with a condensed PowerPoint presentation that focuses on South County, as requested by meeting organizer Yvonne Sheets-Saucedo. She said she’s asked that index cards be available at the start of the meeting so the community’s questions can be answered. The HSRA meetings, according to Sheets-Saucedo, have been “cookie-cutter” and often details have not been provided and important questions are not being answered.
“I’m on a mission to really get the public aware and let them decide. And let them write letters or make calls or come up with their own questions,” Sheets-Saucedo said. “To not be aware of something that is this significant is just not OK.”
The high-speed rail meeting will take over the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance’s regular monthly meeting.
The last community meeting June 10 stirred frustrations and evoked dozens of unanswered questions about the $45-billion project among a standing-room only crowd at Morgan Hill City Hall.
Last month, the South County Joint Planning Advisory Committee heard more than 20 people address the committee and High-Speed Rail Authority consultants. The public’s concerns varied from the impact of noise of the 220-mph electric train, the economic effect and how many privately owned properties along the proposed routes could be taken by the state.
HSRA officials prefer aligning the train along the Union Pacific tracks through South County th
en through Pacheco Pass roughly along Highway 152 to send the high-speed train from San Jose to Merced. However, many community members prefer the route to run alongside U.S. 101 to avoid a track that could pass through town.
Union Pacific sent a letter denying high-speed rail trains access to their right-of-way in 2009 and recently emphatically said it will fight the High-Speed Rail Authority’s want to use land owned by Union Pacific, including the property for the proposed Gilroy high-speed rail station.
While HSRA officials will attend the meetings, it’s not a state- nor county-hosted presentation.
Sheets-Saucedo said that public awareness is her No. 1 priority and Matteoni will be a good informational source to inform residents of their legal rights and eminent domain guidelines. Eminent domain is the power possessed by each state to take over property for a public use, typically it’s used to construct telephone, power, water or gas lines where homes or businesses may reside. Owners are entitled to reasonable compensation or fair-market value of the property.
Matteoni is a partner in the San Jose-based Matteoni, O’Laughlin & Hechtman firm that primarily represents property owners, publicly-held corporations, local businesses, farm and ranch owners, business park owners and developers. Their cases involve right-to-take challenges, inverse condemnation claims and compensation issues such as highest and best use, land and improvement value, damages to remaining property when only part of the land is taken, and loss of business goodwill. Matteoni could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Interested people are asked to e-mail questions related to eminent domain in advance to yv*******@sb*******.net.
