I see a lot of hair splitting in the thread about using it to buy out an owner to build a highway vs. something commercial.
If anything, supporting eminent domain only when it’s to build a highway seems worse. I imagine when the government just wants to buy you out for a road, you get offered what they decide is “fair market value”, and there’s a strict cap that they won’t pay out above.
I would think when a zillion dollar casino wants your house for a parking lot (especially if you end up the last holdout after they’ve paid others), you’ll get orders of magnitude more than the actual value.
But, I know. Saint Ted Flanders can do no wrong to some people. So be it. On to the next primary!
We don’t need to speculate, we know exactly how much the government was going to pay for that house, because they only got overruled on appeal, and it was below fair market value.