![Sample our Built Environment journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5926/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Built-Environment.jpg"})
Abstract
The public use doctrine in eminent domain seemed so sedentary, quietly resting on a bed of firm precedent. Then, in July 2004, the Michigan Supreme Court prodded this ugly critter to its feet when it reversed its 23-year-old, pro-government precedent established in a case known simply as “Poletown.” Poletown had been the polestar decision for those who favored government having the power to take private property to support private economic development. The 1981 Poletown decision was the most expansive decision on eminent domain after the U.S. Supreme Court's bedrock ruling in Herman v. Parker in 1954. For the most part, Poletown put the public use issue into a somnolent state.