Kelo, Conservation Easements, and Forever - Why Eminent Domain Is Not a Sufficient Check on Conservation Easements' Perpetual Duration

In this article you will learn how Kelo v. City of New London affirmed that promoting economic development is a permissible public purpose sufficient to justify taking private property by eminent domain and that a legislative body is to receive broad deference in making this determination.

Much of the threat of a “frozen land utilization problem” comes not from conservation easements held by private land
trusts, but rather from easements held by the federal government, over which the states will have no power of eminent domain

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