<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2jiHfC_1Gzjs0jt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2jiHfC_1Gzjs0jt00" width="400" height="225" >A Daphne property owner says the city is overreaching by using eminent domain to claim part of her family’s waterfront land. The city wants a public path through the property for a boardwalk. Meilyn Marino says the move threatens her privacy, access to the bay and the land’s value."It's insulting, it's hurtful, and just very stressful," said Marino.Marino owns a 4.4 acre wooded lot on Mobile Bay, north of Bayfront Park. Marino says her dad bought the land in the 1980s and she had future plans for it. Now, she says, she's out thousands of dollars fighting the city’s effort to take a permanent, 30-foot-wide easement along her waterfront for a public pedestrian boardwalk."To have to go in front of a judge and defend why I should be able to keep my waterfront that's been in my family for decades, or why I don't want strangers traversing my property and dropping trash or destroying the views, and you know all of these things, it's very frustrating," said Marino.Daphne's city council voted unanimously in May to secure the easement. The resolution states it's "necessary and in the public interest for construction and completion of the Bayfront Park Improvements Project." The city offered Marino $44,616. She says that's pennies on the dollar compared with what she believes the waterfront property is worth and questions if that's the best use of taxpayer money."I think there are other places that the city could have walking trails that doesn't require using taxpayer money to take someone's land away from them," said Marino.On October 28, the Baldwin County probate judge granted the city’s condemnation application and appointed three commissioners to assess Marino’s compensation. Mayor Robin LeJeune declined to comment on Marino’s case, citing pending legal action. He says the city plans to build a $1 million boardwalk connecting Bayfront Park to the Daphne Utilities pier. Marino and one property owner north of her are the only private property owners between the two sites. LeJeune says the other private property owner has already voluntarily conveyed access for the easement."My first thing was just go around me. Why do you have to take my waterfront? Because you own property that already adjoins the property to the north, and you don't have to pay me anything," said Marino.LeJeune says a later phase would extend the boardwalk to the D'Olive Bay Boat Launch. He says the city's long-term goal is to eventually connect it to the Gator Boardwalk near I-10."I just wondered how many other property owners along the Bayfront are aware that this is coming. So, I wanted them to be aware and to know that hey, the city may be coming after your waterfront too," said Marino.Marino says the court-appointed commissioners have until next Tuesday to report to the court how much she should be compensated. She says she may decide to appeal the decision.</div></body>

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A Daphne property owner says the city is overreaching by using eminent domain to claim part of her family’s waterfront land. The city wants a public path through the property for a boardwalk. Meilyn Marino says the move threatens her privacy, access to the bay and the land’s value.

Bayfront boardwalk plan sparks eminent domain dispute in Daphne

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A Daphne property owner says the city is overreaching by using eminent domain to claim part of her family’s waterfront land. The city wants a public path t

Bayfront boardwalk plan sparks eminent domain dispute in Daphne

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