The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) District 7 has chosen Hanson to perform land acquisition services as part of an ongoing contract. Hanson’s responsibilities include preparing and reviewing appraisals and negotiating the acquisitions of properties needed to complete highway construction projects, as well as conducting relocation services for residential and commercial properties, including whole and partial acquisitions of complex commercial, agricultural, residential and vacant land. Hanson’s team has also provided expert witness testimony in quick-take hearings and eminent domain trials.

Under this contract, Hanson is providing land acquisition services for the reconstruction and widening of Fayette Avenue in Effingham, Illinois. Hanson’s work includes appraisals, negotiations and relocations for residential and commercial properties.

Through title interpretation, coordination with the client’s designers and the application of appraisal principals, the project team has been able to combine properties, saving land acquisition costs. Working closely with business owners, schools, homeowners and IDOT, Hanson has found access issues and arrived at satisfactory but minor design modifications that allowed for swift acquisition settlements. Hanson’s title experts identified title issues early in the project, and the team worked with IDOT staff to address the issues and keep the project on schedule.

  • Segment 1: Hanson provided appraisal, negotiation and relocation services for 54 properties, including partial acquisitions and easements of residential and commercial properties. Challenges included design issues, title issues and property owner concerns over valuation of takings, loss of access during construction and impacts on property values.
  • Segment 2 (east half of Fayette): Hanson’s team is providing appraisal, negotiation and relocation services for 48 properties, including partial acquisitions and easements of residential and commercial properties. Challenges have included relocating a climate-controlled, self-storage facility with 40-plus rentals, restaurants, a radio station and multiple other businesses, as well as seven residential properties that qualify for housing of last resort.

In addition, Hanson has facilitated the partial acquisition of buildings impacted by the taking to mitigate extensive relocation assistance to much larger or complex structures and arranged for excess land transactions from the available remainders to facilitate the acquisitions of other parcels.