When Pigeon Forge takes an Ohio family’s second home, it makes a statement citing eminent domain.
This happens in response to the Race family, led by Doug and Mika Race, posting many YouTube videos chronicling their conflict with the city.
WVLT – PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. Citing eminent domain, the City of Pigeon Forge issued a statement following the seizure of a second residence belonging to an Ohio family.
This happens in response to the Race family, led by Doug and Mika Race, posting many YouTube videos chronicling their conflict with the city.
The family claims that in order to build the Westside Connector, which will lessen traffic on Pigeon Forge’s Parkway, the city wrongfully acquired their property.
The statement from the city presents a different image. City officials stated in it that the property —
which the Races paid $306,000 for, with the intention of renting it out, was revalued at $489,665. According to city authorities, the Races made a $3 million bid in response to their $490,000 offer to the family for the space.
Officials stated that since the first offer, offers and counteroffers have been made by the city and the Races. The statement claims that the Races eventually decided to accept a $539,000 offer from the city, to which they responded with a $1.5 million offer.
According to the statement, “the Races could have offered the property as an overnight rental, as was their original intent, to derive and collect income from the property, and in the interim, the City was sympathetic to the Races’ financial obligations to the property.” “The Races saw a decline.”
It is said that these conversations began in March 2023. In the end, the statement asserts that the city told the Races to leave, which they did, and then confiscated the land since they chose not to use it.
It’s also crucial to remember that in November 2021, a City Commission meeting approved the designs for the Westside Connector, which included cutting a route through the Races’ land. In August 2022, a few months later, the Races purchased the house.
