Property owners who had their lawsuit against the village of Mount Pleasant dismissed earlier this month are appealing the decision.
The lawsuit, filed in January, alleges the village’s plans to acquire seven properties for Foxconn Technology Group’s planned $10 billion LCD manufacturing campus violated the owners’ rights to equal protection, private property and due process.
Mount Pleasant sought to have the case dismissed and U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman sided with the village, ruling the property owners’ claims were either not viable or not ready for litigation.
The property owners say the village plans to condemn their properties as blighted in order to use eminent domain procedures to acquire the land. But Adelman noted the village hadn’t started that process and the property owners would need to exhaust their state court options before coming to federal court.
The group, which owns about 18 acres in total, also alleged the village was treating them differently than their neighbors. The plaintiffs were offered 140 percent of the fair market value of their properties while those with large tracts of land were offered $50,000 per acre.
Adelman said in his decision the group hadn’t demonstrated they were similarly situated to the larger property owners and, if anything, looking at a map of the parcels showed the difference between the two.
An attorney representing the property owners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alan Marcuvitz, an attorney for Mount Pleasant, issued a statement indicating the village does “not believe there is any merit to this lawsuit.”
“We are confident that the Appeals Court will reach the same conclusion,” he said. “The appeal will have no impact on the village’s continuing progress on the project.”
