Judge - OSU can use eminent domain to take property: Tulsa OK World, 7/23/07

A judge ruled Monday that Oklahoma State University can acquire through eminent domain the final piece of property it needs for a $316 million athletic village.

Judge Donald Worthington ruled in Payne County District Court that the university can take title to the home owned by Kevin and Joel McCloskey. He transferred the ownership of the land to the OSU Board of Regents.

The amount of money the university will pay the brothers for the ranch-style home in Stillwater remains to be determined by a jury trial.

The brothers challenged the university’s right to take the home through eminent domain, the legal concept under which private property can be taken for public use.

The property was estimated last year by a panel of court-appointed commissioners to be worth $84,000, about $20,000 more than the university offered the brothers for the parcel.

The McCloskey brothers said they would appeal Worthington’s decision.

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