BATON ROUGE, La. -- LSU's governing board has agreed to the expropriation of property to build a new public teaching hospital in New Orleans and a nearby new veterans hospital.
Without objection Friday, the LSU Board of Supervisors approved the use of expropriation. The resolution allows state officials working on the projects to seek a court order to seize private property if the owners refuse to sell. A judge would decide the purchase price the state must pay.
More than 450 separately-owned parcels of land are located in the footprint of the planned U.S. Veterans Affairs' hospital and the $1.2 billion public teaching facility to replace Charity Hospital. State officials say eight pieces of property have been purchased so far.
Jerry Jones, whose office supervises state-funded construction projects, says nobody has outright refused to sell their land for the hospital projects yet.
