Gwinnett County brought an action to condemn certain property, in which Ascot Investment Company and Peoples Bank & Trust had an interest, for a public roadway project designed to improve the area around Georgia Gwinnett College.1 A jury awarded more than $3 million to Ascot and the Bank for the taking of the property, and the court below entered a final judgment upon the verdict of the jury. The County appeals, claiming that the trial court erred by admitting evidence of pre-taking damages, failing to give a requested charge that pre-taking damages are not recoverable, admitting evidence about the proposed future development of the property that is hypothetical and speculative, and refusing to strike a juror based upon his difficulty understanding English. We find no error and affirm. 1. We first address the claims that the trial court erred when it admitted evidence of, the County says, pre-taking damages and when it failed to give a jury charge that the County requested about such damages. The Georgia Constitution provides that “private property shall not be taken or damaged for public purposes without just and adequate compensation being first paid.” Georgia Constitution of 1983 , Art. I, Sec. III, Par. I a. And where, as here, there is a partial taking of property by condemnation, just and adequate compensation is the sum of the market value of the property that is taken and the consequential damage, if any, to the property that remains, both measured as of the time of the taking. Dept. of Transp. v. Ogburn Hardware & Supply , 273 Ga. App. 124, 125 1 614 SE2d 108 2005. The consequential damage to the property that remains is the difference between its fair market value before the taking and its fair market value after the taking. Id. at 126 1. Just and adequate compensation does not include damage to the value of the property before the date of taking as a result of mere anticipation that the property later will be taken. Five Forks v. Dept. of Transp. , 250 Ga. App. 157, 159-160 550 SE2d 715 2001.
Here, the evidence shows that Ascot purchased a 28.606-acre tract of land adjacent to Georgia Gwinnett College in 2006. Shortly thereafter, Ascot entered into negotiations with a third-party developer of student housing, which was interested in buying a portion of the property for the construction of a student housing development. Ascot and the developer signed an agreement in March 2007, in which the developer agreed to buy 19.03 acres of the property for $8 million, or approximately $420,000 per acre. Before the agreement closed, however, Ascot became aware of the County’s intention to condemn a portion of the property that it had agreed to sell to the developer. Consequently, in February 2008, Ascot and the developer entered into an amended purchase agreement, which reduced the acreage being sold to approximately 17.6 acres and decreased the purchase price to approximately $7.4 million, still about $420,000 per acre. In March 2009, the County filed its declaration of taking, which did not pertain to any of the acreage identified for sale in the amended purchase agreement.
