City Looses Unusual 'Taking' Case

"Nearly 30 years after Roanoke's urban renewal effort took his family's land hostage for redevelopment that never happened, Walter Claytor won compensation Wednesday from the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority...The case cracked open the old wounds of urban renewal, during which the authority used the federal urban renewal program to demolish 1,600 homes, 200 businesses and 24 churches in Roanoke...The city had marked the property for redevlopment in 1972 preventing the owners from developing or selling the land, but no action was ever taken."