Jaxport coal terminal battle takes new twist

Jaxport coal terminal battle takes new twist A Fort Myers-based coal company that has been fighting an attempt by the Jacksonville Port Authority to use an eminent domain claim to obtain land for a prospective coal terminal at the Port of Jacksonville has moved the challenge into federal court.
   Keystone Coal Co. Wednesday filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida asking the court to stop the port from using federal funds to condemn the 65-acres parcel to obtain control of the land. The legal challenge is believed to be the first based on the Bond amendment, a 2005 law championed by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., which prohibits the use of any federal funds to obtain land by eminent domain claims. Bond sponsored the bill after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed a city in Connecticut to seize land for the development of a private-sector office complex.
   Keystone agreed in September 2005 to purchase 61 acres of the property, where it hopes to develop a bulk coal terminal. Keystone closed on the property in February.
      The port had made an earlier offer to purchase the entire parcel, and in November 2005 filed a lawsuit to take the entire property under an eminent domain claim. Keystone has also been fighting the eminent domain claim in the state courts system.
   The complaint filed in federal court claims that because the port puts some federal-origin funds into the port general fund budget, none of that money can be used to pay the costs of the eminent domain claim.
   According to earlier media reports about the case, the port had reportedly been in discussions with Drummond Company, Inc., an Alabama-based coal company active in international coal markets, about developing a coal terminal on the site through a lease agreement with the port.
   A state court hearing on the eminent domain claim had been scheduled for November. The port authority has 20 days to make an initial response to the new federal court challenge.