Side Trip: Mount Laurel and the Fair Share

The interstate highway runs south from New York first through the gritty port cities of Newark and Elizabeth and then to the greener center of the state, where the nickname “the Garden State” seems a little more plausible. The suburban gardens get bigger as one travels further from the city, but the suburbs of New York now bleed into those of Philadelphia to the southwest. About 20 miles east of downtown Philadelphia is the township of Mount Laurel, a quintessential outer suburb of ample homes owned by doctors, lawyers, and successful plumbing contractors. In 2006, the town made headlines for a state supreme court decision that upheld the government’s taking, by eminent domain, of land on which a small housing development was under construction. The town told the court that it took the land for “open space,” even though it had no plan to turn the land into a park, a nature preserve, or any other specific public use. The court’s approval of eminent domain allowed the government “to shape the future of the community,” a town attorney said. Critics complained that the real motivation was simply a desire to limit new housing development. A New Jersey builder asserted that the town was “clear that they grabbed the land to stop families with children from moving into town.” More children means, of course, that the town has to pay for public schools and other services. This case was merely the most recent chapter in Mount Laurel’s long and illuminating history as a focal point of the effort to fight exclusionary land use laws—a saga that may help point the way to a successful reform of American politics and law.