Eminent Domain's Dark Side

Here in Central New Jersey, a saga is being played out – a story of eminent domain and a debate as to whether or not government really has the right to seize property and send the owners packing. This is the story of the Halper Farm in Piscataway, currently being seized in order to “preserve open space.” News articles are full of each side’s claims, from the government claim that the land is not being farmed and may even be somehow contaminated, to the family’s claim that the land has been in the family for generations, and they have the right to stay put. You can research the story in the Star Ledger and the Home News, and decide for yourself which side of the controversy you line up with.

As for me, I find this incident very troubling. While eminent domain has been used in the past for the construction of highways, reservoirs and other civic projects, I am bothered by the new interpretation that simple “improvement” is a good enough reason. If that were the real and true reasons, and if concern for the “improvement” of a town or a neighborhood was behind this new interpretation, that would be one thing. I would certainly support the poorly maintained houses in certain neighborhoods that are housing drug dealers and crack heads being “seized” and converted to affordable housing. I would support seizing the abandoned shopping mall and turning it into a town recreation center. I would love to see empty factories and warehouses seized and turned into mixed housing/retail areas.

What I am seeing in this case, however, is some prime real estate, some land that is already “open” being seized presumably to create “open space.” A family that legitimately owns the land is being tossed out. To me, if this was a real concern for open space preservation, why not simply change the zoning of the area, and “grandfather” the family farm into it. As long as the family remains the owners, the area remains a farm, or horse ranch or big lawn. At such time as the family no longer wishes to remain on the land, THAT is the time that the land would be transferred to the government entity, who would pay a fair market value, and then, be obligated to keep the land preserved as “open space.” Since there is no highway being built, no dam threatening to wash them away, no drug dealers camped out and no illegal activities taking place, I don’t see any plausible reason why this family needs to give up their home right this minute. Let’s start seizing some of these drug dens and other places that really damage our quality of life and leave this family alone.