Assembling Land Without Eminent Domain

"Eminent domain continues to get a battering across the United States...[and] the tensions have prompted a new focus on alternative methods for assembling large land parcels."

"One such process is land readjustment - assembling a large redevelopment parcel by giving property owners a stake in the redevelopment project. 'Land readjustment gives all affected property owners the power, by majority vote, to approve or disapprove the transfer of land rights to a self-governing body for redevelopment,' said Yu-Hung Hong, fellow at the Lincoln institute and co-author of Analyzing Land Readjustment, who suggests the method is a 'third way' for urban redevelopment."

"Instead of buying out all existing property owners or using eminent domain, this self-governing body invites property owners to become stakeholders and to contribute their real assets to the project as investment capital, Hong said."