O.R. Colan Associates

A Real Estate Acquisition Management Plan is termed a "RAMP" by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). It is a written document that details how a grantee (usually a local public agency) will administer the land acquisition program. The document is written by the local agency and must be approved by FTA before any acquisition work may begin.

The relocation of a cemetery or private graves is a matter regulated by State law as opposed to the Uniform Act (PL91-646). However, some of the provisions of the Act assist us in formulating a reasonable policy to use when affecting a cemetery. The following material is very general, and should be tempered by the requirements of your specific State law.

Often, there is confusion about items of realty that are purchased as part of the real estate and items of personalty that will not be acquired, but moved/relocated under the relocation assistance program.

49 CFR 24.103(a)(1) and (a)(2)(i), including related Appendix A language of the 2005 Uniform Act (URA) implementing regulations were created to clearly identify and categorize these two classes of items.

Traditionally, most State highway agencies utilized a pay-as-you-go approach to financing their highway improvement programs.
This means that they would analyze their expected total combination of both State and Federal funds in future years and determine
how they would allocate the monies to future projects.

When handling business relocations, one of the problems an agent may encounter is determining the number of businesses located on one parcel that are entitled to a fixed payment. Guidance for the determination of the number of businesses is provided in 49 CFR 24.305(b) Determining the number of businesses.

Let’s take a look at an example encountered on a highway project in a western State.