The town of Johnston’s decision to seize 31 acres of undeveloped land off George Waterman Road is now being challenged in federal court. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
The owners of 31 acres of undeveloped land in Johnston targeted for seizure by eminent domain filed a federal lawsuit against the town Monday night, just two and a half hours after the Town Council voted unanimously to take legal action to condemn the land.
SCLS Realty, LLC, and Sixty Three Johnston, LLC, had plans to build a 252-unit affordable housing complex on the site, but Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena, Jr. wants to build a new public safety complex and town hall. The Town Council voted 5-0 about a half hour into its regular meeting Monday to pass a resolution to pursue the land seizure after obtaining an appraisal that found the property was worth $775,000.
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Polisena is invoking the power of eminent domain in a legal maneuver that involves providing just compensation to the private owner. The value determined in the appraisal by Andolfo Appraisal Associates, Inc. of Providence would represent a cost of $25,000 per acre for the land off George Waterman Road.
But the complaint filed at 10 p.m. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island offers no objection to the value determined in the appraisal.
Instead, the complaint says the land seizure violates the Fifth and 14th amendments, which prohibits the taking of private property unless it is for public use. Plaintiffs say the town’s decision to use eminent domain is merely a pretext to halt them from building the income-restricted apartment complex.
The lawsuit lists the members of the family-owned homebuilder corporations as Lucille Santoro, Salvatore Compagnone, Ralph Santoro, and Suzanne Santoro. They are being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a California-based libertarian nonprofit that often takes on property rights cases including Rhode Island’s coastal property owners who sought to challenge the state’s shoreline access laws.
“The Constitution forbids using eminent domain under false pretenses,” Kady Valois, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. “The town should be honest and transparent about its real reasons for using eminent domain and not lie about why it’s abusing its power to strip owners of their property rights.”
The plaintiffs intended to take advantage of the state’s Low and Moderate Income Housing law, which limits the ability of municipalities to block projects if less than 10% of their residences qualify as affordable. About 7.9% of housing units are considered affordable in Johnston, according to the 2024 HousingWorksRI factbook.
Polisena had opposed the apartment complex saying it was too big for the town and that Johnston’s municipal buildings were in dire need of upgrades.
“My number one priority is the 30,000 residents that currently live in Johnston and providing them effective and efficient government services,” Polisena said in a statement Tuesday. “I look forward to the legal fight initiated by the developers in federal court.”
An official condemnation action will be filed in Providence County Superior Court likely by April, Town Solicitor William Conley Jr. told Rhode Island Current after the council’s vote on Monday night.
“It’s clearly a sham,” Kelley Morris Salvatore, the Providence lawyer representing the project developer, said in an interview Tuesday. “They didn’t have any public discussions about a municipal facilities complex, but decided they needed one once they didn’t want our project.”
Town officials said the search for a new public safety complex site had been years in the making, choosing to operate under the radar until an adequate location was found.
But the lawsuit claims Polisena’s push to use eminent domain only came after he made multiple public declarations that he would use all the governmental power he had to halt the project. Polisena has stated he prefers to see single-family homes built in Johnston, not high-density apartment complexes.
“The Santoro family refused to buckle under this intimidation and declined to withdraw or alter its plans to build affordable housing,” the lawsuit reads. “The town, in bad faith and with spite and actual animus, exercised eminent domain to force the Santoro Family into a choice: either alter or halt the affordable housing plans, or be deprived of the family’s land by government force.”
If the court reverses the town’s land seizure, the developer intends to continue its plan to build the apartment complex, Morris Salvatore said.
An online search shows parcels of land in Johnston for sale ranging from $159,000 for 1.48 acres off Anglewood Avenue, $250,000 for just a little over an acre off Central Avenue, and $499,000 for 0.46 acre lot off Atwood Avenue. But the value of land varies by its proximity to utilities and zoning regulations, said Rhode Island Builders Association CEO John V. Marcantonio.
“Like anything else, it all depends on what you can do with the land,” Marcantonio said.
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