Clinton Presidential Library
Gets Green Light
The Arkansas Supreme Court eliminated the last legal hurdle for the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, November 1 by upholding the city’s seizure of land for the facility. The court ruled that landowner Eugene Pfeifer III had failed to prove that the library and archive complex would not constitute a park as the state defines it, which was the premise under which the city claimed the property.
Clinton Library Foundation President Skip Rutherford said that the favorable ruling could bring about a groundbreaking by the end of the year. A decision against the city could have forced Rutherford to find another site for the library, the Associated Press reported November 1.
In May the supreme court took over Pfeifer’s appeal, originally filed with the state appellate court. Little Rock claimed Pfeifer’s land under the right of eminent domain after he rejected a $400,000 offer for the property that he acknowledged was fair. Pfeifer had argued that the public should have been allowed to vote on whether to use city funds in the deal.
Posted November 5, 2001.
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