Take the Frustration Out of Relocation | The Grid Pad

by Sonya Henning and Penny Rolf

Will your project impact property so drastically that you will force a family to move from their home or a business to move from its current location? If so, prepare to enter the realm of ?RELOCATION.?

When a public project displaces people or businesses and they have to move from their current location, these ?displacees? may be eligible for a variety of relocation benefits. Relocation benefits are offered to displaced individuals, families, businesses, partnerships, corporations, associations, farms, and nonprofit organizations that meet certain criteria. These criteria are outlined in the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, as amended; 49 CFR Part 24; 23 CFR Part 710; other laws and rules that may affect your project; and other state-specific laws, like Minnesota State Statute 117 (17.50 through 117.56, in particular).

The best way to meet the needs of your displaced parties is to include a relocation expert in your project planning. This early involvement will ensure that the project team understands the extent of the potential impacts to displacees, the potential cost to the project, and the time required to acquire property and complete the relocation process. In general, right of way and relocation staff should be included as early as the scoping process because relocation is not a stand-alone process; relocation and right of way acquisition go hand in hand.

Relocation can be stressful for the displacees, so it is important for them to know their rights, the project timeline, and how relocation works as early in the project as practical. Treating people with dignity and respect is a key to successful property acquisition and relocation.

An example of the potential items a residential displacee may be eligible for include:

• Advisory services, such as referrals and relocation claim assistance
• Moving costs, either as a self-move payment or for a professional moving company
• Replacement housing payments
• Purchase supplement
• Incidental expenses, which would include eligible closing costs and mortgage differential payments
• Rental assistance
• Down payment assistance
• Minimum compensation

Some of the items businesses, farms, or nonprofit organizations may be eligible for may include:

• Advisory services; such as, referrals and relocation claim assistance
• Moving costs
• Minimum compensation
• Business reestablishment
• Searching expenses for replacement property
• Losses of personal property
• Related non-residential expenses

You may be wondering how you will know what benefits people are eligible for and how much all of this will cost. This is a good question. Until the relocation expert is actively involved in the project and meets with the potential displacees, it is unknown what situations and circumstances will be encountered. It may be possible to give a rough estimate of the ?worst case? scenario for relocation, but actual hard costs may not be known until the project is completed and closed. Many of the relocation benefits are items that are paid through reimbursement. As part of the reimbursement process, the displacees submit invoices that are reviewed to determine the eligible benefits, which are then entered on a relocation claim form to be submitted for payment. There are some guidelines to follow, and some benefits are capped; however, the final dollar amount is generally unknown.

Sonya is a Professional Engineer with more than 17 years of experience in the civil engineering field, with most of the time focused specifically on right of way engineering and acquisition. In addition to acquiring property rights for cities and counties, she has worked for the Minnesota Department of Transportation as a District Right of Way Engineer and as the statewide Right of Way Program Manager.

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Penny has more than 19 years of experience in real estate and has been the project manager for multiple acquisition and relocation projects.? The past 12 years have been exclusively devoted to acquiring right of way and providing relocation assistance on numerous projects for utility companies, city county, MnDOT and WisDOT projects.

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