The City of Covington seeks to continue work on Riverfront Commons, the multi-purpose trail that extends from Ludlow in the west to Dayton and Fort Thomas in the east along the Ohio River, spearheaded by Southbank Partners.

But one property stands in the city's way and on Tuesday night, the city commission opted to take control of the property over the owner's protests.

830-840-850 Highway Avenue is an unusable parcel of land that touches the river, according to City Engineer Mike Yeager, who explained that the city has been in negotiations with the property owner since March.

The owner is Meredith "Larry" Lawrence, the former Northern Kentucky attorney who was serving time in a federal prison for failing to report income from various sources, including from his ownership of Racers gentleman's club in Sparta near the Kentucky Speedway, according to media reports at the time.

The City of Covington brought in an outside appraiser to check out the property and after that offered up $81,000 to Meredith.

Meredith countered: $1 million.

The city countered: eminent domain.

"This is not something we do lightly," said City Commissioner Chuck Eilerman. "We don't want to be taking people's homes or property, but there is no home involved here. It's virtually unusable."

Yeager said that the city offered to buy an easement to allow the Riverfront Commons project to move forward but said that Meredith wasn't interested.

City Commissioners Mildred Rains and Michelle Williams voted against the proposal, which is to acquire the property through eminent domain. State law mandates that if a government body takes control of a piece of land, it must do so with the public good as its purpose and must offer a fair price to the owner. Meredith did not believe that the price was fair and has stopped negotiating with the city, Yeager said, which he had been doing via email and phone calls from prison.

He was sentenced to two years and three months in a sentence that was handed down in November 2012.

Williams had particular concerns over how much of the land would actually be used for the trail project, which Yeager said would be approximately fifteen feet.

"We're already trying to take his property, which is how I see this. If we're going to take it and we're not using the rest of his property for public use, then I don't see why we need to take it," Williams said.

In fact, part of the new trail will be prone to flooding.

"You want us to take his property and then build a trail that's going to flood," Williams said.

"At times," Yeager said. "The majority of the time it will be above water."

"It would be difficult to do any kind of development here," Mayor Sherry Carran said. She was joined by Eilerman and Commissioner Steve Frank in approving the eminent domain attempt. "For 3.24 acres, he's getting a good price per acre. It's $25,000 an acre, so it is a good price, it's very reasonable."

The other issue involved is a $250,000 fund secured by then-State Senator Jack Westwood and State Rep. Arnold Simpson to extend the sidewalk and improve safety elements along Highway Avenue. Yeager said Tuesday night that it is likely that the sidewalk and safety work can be done in an amount that leaves plenty of funding left over to acquire Meredith's property, too.

If the city doesn't use the funds, the state can reclaim them at some point. If the sidewalk and safety improvements proceed without Meredith's property, it would essentially be a sidewalk to nowhere, Yeager said.

"For all the reasons brought up in just the past few minutes, we need the whole parcel," Eilerman said.

Williams pressed Yeager on whether there would be any way around taking the whole property such as possibly moving the trail to the street. Yeager said that would be impossible because of the nearby flood gate where the street cannot be narrowed.

The trail will connect on the backside of the floodwall, he said. "There's not another way to do it," Yeager said.

Assistant City Manager and City Solicitor Frank Warnock said that the eminent domain process involves the courts and that the court can determine whether it can be used and how much should be paid for the land.

"And what if they come back at $250,000?," Williams asked. "Is the city still going to buy it?"

Yeager explained that at that point, the issue would return to the city commission for consideration. Commissioner Frank offered his support because of the fact that a judge will ultimately decide what's fair.

Warnock said the process could take months or even years to work its way through the courts.

"I still don't feel like this is worthy of eminent domain," Williams said. "If it's a treasure to someone else, why are we going to put a price on that? It's unfortunate that we got the money from Rep. Simpson and you're going to have to build a sidewalk to nowhere, but I don't want to take this man's property."

Written by Michael Monks, editor & publisher of The River City News