I am the author of the Belt Magazine piece which inspired this story and subsequent comments. As you would hope, readers have done much to clarify the specifics. However, one of the premises of this BB story is that the municipality plans to take property at a pittance. Actually, the assessors hired by the municipality are charged with working from fair market assessments. These valuations are based on valuations prior to announcement of the project, per state law. However, many homeowners have not received these offers, even as the eminent domain process grinds into effect. These homeowners are worried that they will not get sufficient money to rebuild a similar house on similar property since real estate has spiked in the wake of the Foxconn project. Others may indeed be holding out – and it is the possibility of holdouts which worries the municipality, since they’ve promised Foxconn the land.
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