Bobert, that's actually not quite true. In the past, eminent domain was used to allow private development, but only in the inner cities where all of the poor people lived (remember "urban renewal"?). The only thing that has changed is that what was already being done only to the poor, can now be done to anyone.

I have to say that I really can't fault that decision. Maybe it will now inspire the middle and upper income people to get off their collective arses and finally fix the legislation that allows this to be done to the poor people. Sometimes you have to appeal to people's sense of enlightened self-interest in order to get them to do what's right.

Someone in another thread reported that back in the 1970s a whole lot of elderly and poor people lost their homes (through the use of eminent domain) so that a Safeway (grocery) store could be built in their place.

Having said all of that, rich-joy, you have my sympathy. I lost a really good ramping ground (ramps = wild leek) to loggers once. The area was filled with a whole lot of beautiful and hard to find wildflowers, and a crystal clear, clean enough to drink out of stream as well. It was completely ruined.