Ralph Santoro and Salvator Compaian discovered that their lands had been seized through social media.
The plot, which has an area of 31 acres, is located, where they planned to build a reasonable residential complex, on the edge of Johnston, a suburb of Provence.
Nubia was announced on March 14. The mayor of Johnston Joseph Polisina Junior, an audio deduction for the housing project, books On Facebook and X that the city has taken the land with a prominent field. The plan was to build a new government complex there.
Why did we write this
The prominent field can be used for halt Development in the name of the public good? Rod Island’s case can put a precedent in the authority of governments on private development.
Mr. Santoro and Mr. Compaian have received orders to evacuate the plot in one week, or be cited for classification. They and their relatives immediately took the matter to court.
“I felt as if I was subjected to physical assault,” says Mr. Santoro, whose family bought the earth in the eighties. “Our characteristics are a passion for us.”
For his part, the mayor says he is behaving to provide the police and fire departments with the necessary facilities. What’s more, he says, such a large complex will be outside the place in its small town.
The case addresses two cases of hot flowers: the prominent field-which allows governments to seize private lands for public benefit, such as the highway-and housing at reasonable prices. The latter has become a massive cry with the high prices of home, but as it does in Johnston, people usually want to be designed elsewhere. Both sides in the Johnston case also provide competing definitions of what the American dream appears to be for immigrant children.
While a court temporarily brought the land to its former owners, the ongoing federal issue can put a precedent in the authority of governments on special developments, says legal housing and housing experts. The prominent field can be used for halt Development in the name of the public good?
“If the landowners win,” it is difficult to use a prominent field for Nimby purposes. “” If the city wins, it will make it easier, “says Elia Sumneen, a professor at George Mason University who is studying the real estate law, referring to” not in the backyard “.
“Take an excuse”?
In practice, the prominent field sparked a lot of controversy.
David Shelcher, professor of monarchy and urban law at the Faculty of Law at Yale University, says that landowners usually receive many opportunities to challenge Nubia before completing it, and they must receive “fair compensation” if their property is taken.
The “urban renewal” movement in the mid -twentieth century was often used as a prominent field of displacement Hundreds of thousands From people-black and low income in an unpopular way-where homes and companies were demolished to provide space for highways, commercial development and municipal buildings.
In a controversial decision of 2005, the Supreme Court sought to use the prominent field. It was considered that it is legal for cities to seize residential real estate for sale for private developers, when the new owner applies to the public interest.
The case, Kilo against New LondonIt allowed Connecticut to seize real estate and sell them to a development company to build a Pfizer facility. The planned development fell through. As of 2023, the houses were demolished but nothing was built on the ground.
Professor Sumnein says Kilo’s decision has restrictions on government authority. It is worth noting that “taking the demonstration” – a seizure that cannot be the official logical basis is the real motivation – illegal.
This is accused by the landowners of Johnston, the town of its performance.
“They took this property because they wanted to stop a reasonable housing project,” says Kelly Morris Salvator, a lawyer for Mr. Santoro and Mr. Compaian. It calls Nubia “municipal bullying” and says that under the state law, the city lacks the authority to take property for a municipal building.
Jingan Ping/Christian science observer
Lawyers refer to a Public message It was sent by Mayor Polisina in December 2024, three months before Nubia. In the letter, the mayor wrote that “all the authority of the government that I have” will use “to stop the housing project.
“I … I have any care who may be offended this process,” he wrote.
The mayor also said that the city will welcome the homes of the same family built on the land of Mr. Santooro and Mr. Compaian, instead of housing at reasonable prices. It was not mentioned in the letter of building a new municipal complex.
City needs
Mr. Polisina says that Nubia was legally conducted and that it is the lawyers of the opposition team who do not understand the law of the state.
He has been looking for a land for a new municipal complex since 2023, as he says, as the city hall, the fire station and the police station are in bad condition.
He explains that the fire station does not contain a bath or shower for the firefighters, and Johnston police officers have doubled since the police station was built decades ago.
After some potential sites fell, the “ideal” place was found in November 2024, when Mr. Santoro and Mr. Companion were suggested to build 252 units of well -off housing in a 31 -acre plot.
“I just put two and two together,” says Mr. Polisina in an interview in the city hall.
He believes that a complex consisting of 252 units at reasonable prices will overwhelm the financial affairs and infrastructure of the suburbs city of up to 30,000.
He says: “I do not know any other residential complex anywhere in the state … where 2 % of the municipality’s population will come from one residential complex.”
Professor Somon compares Johnston’s Nubia to 2024, Brenckmann, and others. Against the town of Southold, New York.
After making several attempts to prevent the construction of the hardware store, the city moved to seize the ground, and suggested that it make it a “negative garden”. The space, which is now public, was left, as it was, with no garden facilities.
The court ruled in favor of the city.
Various ideas for the American dream
Mayor Polisina, who hopes to see more homes of the same family built in Johnston, says it represents the “American dream”.
Mr. Polisina says that his ancestors, who came from Italy, settled for the first time in Provence, and moved to rural and rural areas after building wealth. He sees the path of his family as a typical migrant story.
He says: “I think that the homes of one family are the prevailing way in which people appear-I do not think only in my community, but throughout the country … he seeks for it.” “I don’t think people will leave their family homes and move to low -income residential complexes.”
Mr. Santoro and Mr. Companis are also the children of Italian immigrants.
Mr. Santoro says he grew up in Provence, and lived in Johnston for a “short period.” His parents were placing work and often worked in Johnston. Mr. Santooro adds that his partner, Mr. Companion, is from the fourth generation of homes by its ancestors, “Many houses in Johnston.”
Mr. Santoro says the two are currently “70 to 100” rental units with reasonable rent.
“When you think about housing at reasonable prices, these are just young professionals who started in their career,” says Mr. Santoro. “He is a policeman; he is a teacher who may achieve between 45,000 to $ 60,000 a year … It is astronomer to reach a deposit down” for one family home.
The Housing Law in Rod Island requires communities to maintain 10 % or more housing shares throughout the year as an easy -to -cost housing. If it is less than that percentage, the law limits the ability of local governments to prevent housing projects at reasonable prices.
In Johnston, about 8 % From housing throughout the year qualifies as a low -income and moderate housing.
When Mr. Santoro attended the Planning Council meeting last year, he says that some responses shocked him. Some members of the Board of Directors made “very insulting statements” about the public housing project in Provence and compared it to its proposed complex.
“I was not more than this public housing project,” he says. “My father was a migrant, well?”
“We have learned to work hard all the time. The hard work will take its fruits.” “We are just trying to return the favor a little now.”
