INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis and Public Works crews are preparing for the next phase of a project to widen and update the Monon Trail. A task some neighbors tell WRTV will consume parts of their property.
At a neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, neighbors gathered to learn ways to protect their property.
"I usually go up here at 96th Street on Nora Lane," Ed Hankee said.
Hankee has lived on the Monon Trail for 57 years. Whether he's biking or taking an afternoon stroll with his wife, he enjoys having it nearby.
“We moved here, there were trains going on the Monon. There was one in the morning and one in the evening,” Hankee said.
A railroad that was abandoned decades ago is now causing some homeowners a bigger headache.
"Eminent domain is the government's right to take your property for a public purpose," Attorney Thomas Malapit of Malapit & Rochford said.
The city acquired the former Monon railroad corridor from CSX in 1989.
Fast forward to now, the city and the Indianapolis Department of Public Works are working on a $1.65 million project to widen and resurface the Monon.
Hankee understands why a lot of neighbors are upset.
"Well, I can see why, because a lot of them now have got their fences put up, private property? But I didn't know they were making it wider. I don't see why it needs to be widened."
"Some letters have gone out. We haven't gotten a letter yet, but we've been hearing about it. Anyone that we asked, we haven't gotten clear answers,” resident Casey Thompson said.
Thompson joined the crowded meeting Wednesday night to seek information about how this expansion will impact their property, now that the city wants to acquire roughly 33 feet on either side, chipping away a lot of land for homeowners.
"No explanation of why it needs to be 33 feet on each side of 66 feet in total. We can all walk out there, the trail is 12 feet wide, maybe 12 and a half," said resident Chris Carson.
The second phase of the expansion will stretch from 56th Street up to 96th Street.
"The problem is this is not your typical eminent domain case. Cities come in, they've already taken it, they're already using it. Normally, when we're brought in, it's when they first receive an offer before there's a taking. In this case, it's already been taken,” Malapit said.
Malapit said there are two things homeowners can do now.
"One, we can try to minimize the take for each property owner, and that's what we would like to do for these because no one, I think, really has serious objections to the trail," said Malapit. "We can help try to minimize the damage and the impact, and if that doesn't work with the city, then we are fully prepared to make sure they get just compensation, just as our U.S. Constitution provides and our Indiana State Constitution."
"We live on the Monon because we love the Monon. We are not against the expansion by no means, but we just bought our house last August, and we're so excited to be in our first home and to have this happen, and not get any clear answers it's very frustrating," Thompson said.
WRTV reached out to Indy DPW about this phase of the expansion.
Indy DPW is continuing on with the widening and resurfacing project for the Monon Trail that began years ago - a 2022 press release is attached for your reference.
With 10th to 56th streets complete, the next phase is 56th to 96th streets.
With well over a million people using the Monon Trail, a treasured public asset each year, it is vitally important that it grow to meet the needs of the community.
During the planning and design for the Monon widening project, it was discovered that the real estate interests that the City owns may not be adequate. The issue arises from a series of court opinions in Indiana regarding the transfer of former railroad properties, which hold that the railroad may transfer only those interests that the railroad owned, which in turn depends upon the way the railroad acquired the interests in the first place. That is, if the railroad acquired a railroad right-of-way easement, then only a railroad easement may be transferred, whereas if the railroad acquired fee title to the property, then the railroad could transfer fee title.
The City acquired the former Monon Railroad corridor from CSX in 1989, before this body of law was fully developed. Based on its understanding of the law, the City has now determined that it acquired from CSX an easement on some of the Monon Trail properties in 1989. Accordingly, in order to clear up title to this land, to expand the Monon Trail, and to continue the operation of the Trail for and on behalf of the public, the City has determined that the best course of action is to acquire fee title to the land on which it currently owns an easement.
