Flight 93 Memorial at Shanksville, Pa on hold

[American Horse]

The memorial, promised to be complete by 2011, has a hang up. The Dept of interior hasn't been able to convince all the property owners to let go of their property. Bad on the property owners, right? Well, not entirely. The US Government wants not less than 2,000 acres for the memorial. Two thousand acres at 2,000 x 43,560 square feet per acre is equivalent to a strip of land a thousand feet wide by just a little less than 17 miles long.

By comparison the WWII Memorial sits on 7.4 acres in Washington, D.C., so the proposed Shanksville memorial will be 270 times larger than the WWII memorial. Flight 93 came down at a steep angle digging a deep crater in the ground, so not much ground was actually directly affected.

Some of the property owners don't believe they are getting market value for their land, and are less than willing to sell. Sec Salazar and Sen. Specter are meeting with the property owners to try to reach an agreement, before imposing eminent domain seizure.


For the record, I support the memorial, but I question the need for such a large memorial and the huge transfer of land by coercion by the government; it seems to be an over reach to me.

 

[Annie]

I don't give a fig about size. I do care that it not be done in the Islamic Crescent or hammer & sickle.

 

[Tinktink]

I don't believe any one that owns land should be forced to give it up for a memorial.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The government has recently said that they won't exercise their "right" to steal the owners' property, so that's at least a good thing. But you've got to wonder whether the owners will lower their price because they know that the government could simply take it if they wanted to.

 

[American Horse]

The government has recently said that they won't exercise their "right" to steal the owners' property, so that's at least a good thing. But you've got to wonder whether the owners will lower their price because they know that the government could simply take it if they wanted to.

Land in imminent threat of seizure loses value in appraisals as zoning for prior uses are jeopardized by uncertanty. At least there is a deadline on this plan, but that could be extended indefinitely if the planners saw fit to do so.

To me this is just another symptom of a bungling bureaucracy screwing over people.

 

[DiveCon]

I don't give a fig about size. I do care that it not be done in the Islamic Crescent or hammer & sickle.

they need to completely redo this thing and make it MUCH smaller
no way this thing need over 2000 acres

 

[Navy1960]

Exactly the reason why this memorial belongs in the hands of a non-profit perhaps run by the families or their agents. Then perhaps they could come to an agreement with the land owners and also come up with a design that is better suited to remember those who lost their lives there. Then maybe the memorial can be turned over to the Govt. to run afterwards. A memorial does not need that much land to be constructed and its completely crazy to expect these land owners to hand over property that is not needed in the first place.