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US Govt. snatched land to expand Arlington Ceremony, legal battle ensued
A bench trial has commenced in a federal court to determine whether or not the US government should pay up to $21m to compensate a Virginia county for the land that it took to expand Arlington National Cemetery.
The expansion project is expected to provide the Arlington cemetery with between 50,000 and 60,000 additional burial spaces and to extend its ability to accommodate new burials until 2060. Work on the expansion has already started and will continue regardless of the judge’s decision on the case.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">County seeks cash for land to expand Arlington National Cemetery<a href="https://t.co/fmUGTj97sX">https://t.co/fmUGTj97sX</a></p>— Military Times (@MilitaryTimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/MilitaryTimes/status/1645509027105832974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The central issue is how much the federal government should pay to Arlington County for the nine acres of land it took from the county to expand the cemetery. The government argues that it has already fulfilled its duties by improving the road network on the cemetery’s southern border, including significant improvements to a highway that serves as a primary commuter route. However, the county believes that it should be compensated for a four-acre parcel of land that it believes could be developed into housing if it were rezoned. The county argues that the land is particularly valuable as it is within walking distance of the Pentagon and the new Amazon headquarters being built in the county.
Despite discussions and negotiations that have been ongoing for over twenty years, no agreement has been reached.
The Justice Department argues that the federal government deeded the land to the county in the 1950s and 1960s under the condition that it only be used for roads, meaning that a multimillion-dollar housing development would be impermissible. The county, however, argues that there is nothing in the deeds that restricts it from developing the land and that it has longstanding policy commitments to address the region’s housing shortage. The county’s lawyers have noted that an appraisal conducted in 2020 concluded that the land would be worth $21m if it were developed into about 50 townhouses.
In 2021, a judge ruled in favor of the federal government, but the county appealed, and the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the ruling and sent the case back for trial.
The cemetery estimates that the expansion will be completed in 2027, but its life could be extended even further under changes proposed in 2019 that would significantly restrict eligibility for burial there.
The decision reached by U.S. District Judge will set a precedent for future disputes between the government and localities over land condemnation. Regardless of the verdict, it is clear that the fight over the nine acres of land taken for the cemetery expansion is far from over, and both sides will continue to fiercely defend their positions.
