Attorneys for Mount Pleasant and village president Dave DeGroot want a judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 12 landowners living near the site of Foxconn Technology Group’s planed LCD campus.
The property owners brought their lawsuit earlier this month alleging their rights to equal protection, private property and due process were being violated. The group said they are going to be paid “a fraction of the compensation that is being paid, or has been paid to … similarly situated neighbors.”
The village and Racine County are using multiple methods to acquire the land. In December the village exercised options on 1,400 acres of land in the project area, but other parcels, including those owned by the plaintiffs, will likely be acquired via eminent domain.
But because the eminent domain process hasn’t started, the village is arguing the landowners shouldn’t be able to bring their lawsuit.
“This lawsuit is not based on the notion that the procedures of that statute were not followed or were defectively implemented; instead, it seeks to avoid them entirely, having this court take on the entire role of a state administrative and judicial process,” Alan Marcuvitz, an attorney for the village, wrote in support of his motion to dismiss.
If the court doesn’t dismiss the case, the village is asking the federal court to stay its proceedings to allow the state eminent domain process to run its course.
