Landowners fight effort to take land for Foxconn
“A dozen homeowners living near the Wisconsin site for a massive Foxconn Technology Group complex are going to court to try to stop efforts to forcibly take their land.
The property owners say the community where the plant is to be located, the Village of Mount Pleasant, is violating their constitutional rights by incorrectly using eminent domain to take their homes. Eminent domain allows the government to take private property for public use with compensation.
The homeowners’ attorney, Erik Olsen, said the village claims it’s taking the land for public projects, such as roads and utilities, but he says it’s the Taiwan-based Foxconn that ultimately benefits. Eighteen acres (7 hectares) the village is acquiring for the Foxconn complex belong to the landowners.
“Property rights are actually one of the most basic rights that we have as Americans, the right to have private property and the right to have that property protected,” Olsen said.”
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The Associated Press. ABC News 10 January 2018.