Eminent domain would allow town to take 21-acre farm

Eminent domain allows the government to seize private 
property for public use. (Photo by Richard R, Unsplash)

A 21-acre farm in Cranbury, New Jersey, is at risk of being seized by the government to develop affordable housing, Faith Bottum from The Wall Street Journal reported. 

If the government is successful, the farm, which belonged to the Henry family for 175 years, would be given to a private developer.

The township wants to seize the land to comply with the Mount Laurel doctrine, a 1975 ruling by the Supreme Court of New Jersey that required towns to provide affordable housing.

“Cranbury needs to create 265 new affordable units over the next decade,” Bottum wrote. The Henry farm would be able to house 130 of those units.

The ability for the government to take private property for public use is known as eminent domain. But under the Fifth Amendment, private property cannot be taken without just compensation.

Yet why would the sale of private property to private developers constitute public use when the affordable housing units will not be available for everyone in the town?

The precedent for this is a 2005 ruling by the Supreme Court which held that a Connecticut city’s decision to seize private property and sell it to private developers constituted public use. The rationale by the judges was that it served a larger public purpose as part of an economic development plan that would benefit everyone.