She should have been compensated with a percentage of the recurring annual profit derived from the developement. Then she would remain an owner. And a damn wealthy one at that!
In a perfect world, that would be nice.
Unfortunately, we live in America, where private property rights are a dim memory.
That would have been smart and she might well have been able to get such a deal. We just had a similar situation right here in Fairbanks (the last bastion of Conservatism in the world), and much of what happened and was said might have been read off the same script.