Publication Date

2011

Abstract

This Article proposes a mechanism to internalize the risk to the public interest created by the process of land assembly utilized in conjunction with most eminent domain-related projects. The Article explains how the traditional bifurcated process of land assembly produces a schism between the land assembler's acquisition of title and the ability of the land assembler to make a productive use of the acquired property. The gap of time between title acquisition and use permits a change of circumstances to thwart the completion of a redevelopment project, which leaves the public to incur the costs of post-litigation waste. To internalize the externalities generated by the typical land assembly process, the Article proposes that land assemblers and condemning authorities hold title to properties in a land preservation trust until title to all necessary parcels has been acquired. The flexibility of a trust shields the public, land assemblers, and property owners from objective and subjective costs stemming from assembling land in the shadow of eminent domain. By preserving the properties, the trust not only becomes a proxy for the public utility of redevelopment projects, but also tips the balance of the public-private process of land assembly toward equipoise.

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