Federal court slaps down Rhode Island town’s surprise seizure of family’s land

A federal court has slapped down an attempt by the town of Johnston, Rhode Island, to use eminent domain to seize a vacant lot slated for affordable housing development. 

“When a municipality elects to invoke the power of eminent domain, it must proceed in the manner prescribed by law, and the Town did not do so here,” wrote Melissa R. DuBose, a judge for the U.S District Court for the District of Rhode Island. 

The property in question is a 31-acre site owned by several members of the Santoro family, through their company SCLS Realty, LLC. 

In late 2024, the family of developers approached Johnston officials about their plans to develop the property into a 254-unit housing project. 

The proposal received a negative reception from town officials, with Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena promising to “use all the powers of government that I have to stop” the project. 

Officially, the town’s power to stop the project using its own land use regulations was limited. The Santoro family had invoked a recently passed state law that allowed developers to build larger projects than what local zoning codes allow, provided they include below-market-rate affordable units. Their proposal called for the inclusion of at least 25 affordable units. 

Instead, the town decided to seize the property through eminent domain on the grounds that the site was needed for new municipal buildings. 

In March, the town passed a resolution creating its own bespoke process for taking the land via eminent domain. 

The property owners filed a lawsuit in federal court the next day to stop the seizure. They argued that the “municipal campus” the town planned to build on the land was a mere pretext for taking their property and stopping their housing development. 

Undeterred, a day after the property owners filed that lawsuit, the town filed documents with Johnston’s land evidence record office citing the eminent domain resolution and transferring the property’s title to the town. The town did not inform the Santoro family or its lawyers that it had taken the property.

The same day, the town filed its own petition in Rhode Island state court asking to deposit the payment of $775,000 with the court as payment for the Santoro family’s plot.

Here too, the town did not notify the Santoro family or their lawyers of that petition. Nor did they inform them of a hearing held this past Friday where the state court (without the Santoro family or their lawyers present) accepted the town’s deposit petition.

In a social media post that Friday, Polisena presented the seizure of the property as a done deal. Only later did the town inform the property owners that their land had been taken. 

This attempted fait accompli was quickly slapped down by the Rhode Island District Court, which ordered the town to return title to the land to the Santoro family’s company. 

Yesterday’s decision by the district court minced no words when declaring that the town’s speedy seizure of the property was illegal, as it did not follow Rhode Island’s much more detailed regulations governing eminent domain. 

Johnston tried to argue that the town’s charter entitled it to create its own bespoke eminent domain process, but the district court was having none of it. 

“A municipality is not in and of itself a sovereign,” wrote DuBose. “Because eminent domain is an inherent attribute of sovereignty, a municipality may exercise that power only to the extent the General Assembly has delegated it by statute.” 

“This ruling reins in the Town’s obvious abuse of power and protects every American whose land a government might decide it wants,” said Kady Valois, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, which litigated the case on behalf of the Santoro family, in a statement.