In the Kelo matter, people lived in and owned homes in a prime area, some for decades. The government seized valuable property, and sold it to private developers so that more taxes could be raised.
In the Running Horse development, there is a combination of farm land and blighted areas. The people on the farms willingly sold to the developers. My understanding of the piece of property in the controversy was that it had been purchased relatively cheaply but that it was not developed and there were no plans to do so, and that it was in an area of "blight." The main intent seems to be a speculative one, and not a development one.
The City of Fresno has not undertaken to take homes and farms away from citizens to sell to Mr. Trump. The City of Fresno has a mighty club that Mr. Trump lacks, and if the City does nothing, the whole area may become an area of blight much bigger than the one that existed before.
What I think is happening is that the City of Fresno is purchasing the development for the purposes of eminent domain on any land that is holding up the process. Once that is done, the City will then sell the development to Donald Trump.
I'm not on my high horse going forth as a defender of any entity here, this is only what I think is happening, and why it is happening.
If in fact it is just property where no one lives, but has abandon buildings then what is the problem with the holdouts? It still bothers me that city is forcing the sale of the properties. It is too easy for this to set prescedence for other developers.