The owners of 31 acres of undeveloped land in Johnston targeted for seizure by eminent domain filed a federal lawsuit against the town Monday night, just two and a half hours after the Town Council voted unanimously to take legal action to condemn the land.
SCLS Realty LLC and Sixty Three Johnston LLC had plans to build a 252-unit affordable housing complex on the site, but Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. wants to build a new public safety complex and town hall. The Town Council voted 5-0 in its regular meeting Monday to pursue the land seizure after obtaining an appraisal that found the property was worth $775,000.
Polisena is invoking the power of eminent domain in a legal maneuver that involves providing “just compensation” to the private owner. The value determined in the appraisal by Andolfo Appraisal Associates Inc., of Providence, would represent a cost of $25,000 per acre for the land off George Waterman Road.
The complaint, filed at 10 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Providence, offers no objection to the value determined by the appraisal.
Instead, the complaint says, the land seizure violates the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments, which prohibit the taking of private property unless it is for public use. Plaintiffs say the town’s decision to use eminent domain is merely a pretext to halt them from building the income-restricted apartment complex.
The lawsuit lists the members of the family-owned homebuilder corporations as Lucille Santoro, Salvatore Compagnone, Ralph Santoro and Suzanne Santoro. They are being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a California-based libertarian nonprofit that often takes on property-rights cases, including those of some Rhode Island coastal property owners who have sought to challenge the state’s shoreline-access laws.
“The Constitution forbids using eminent domain under false pretenses,” Kady Valois, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. “The town should be honest and transparent about its real reasons for using eminent domain and not lie about why it’s abusing its power to strip owners of their property rights.”
The plaintiffs intended to build under the provisions of the state’s Low and Moderate Income Housing law, which limits the ability of a municipality to block a project unless at least 10% of the community’s housing stock qualifies as affordable. About 7.9% of housing units are considered affordable in Johnston, according to the 2024 HousingWorksRI factbook.
Polisena had opposed the proposed apartment complex, saying it was too big for the town and would bring too much traffic to the area. He also said he’d prefer that residents buy rather than rent their homes.
At a special Town Council meeting in January, Polisena introduced his plan to replace the apartment project with a new municipal campus that would include the Fire Department, Police Department and Town Hall. The council approved his proposed resolution 4 to 0.
“My number one priority is the 30,000 residents that currently live in Johnston and providing them effective and efficient government services,” Polisena said in a statement Tuesday. “I look forward to the legal fight initiated by the developers in federal court.”
Asked on Wednesday whether the town has a budget for such litigation, which could continue for years, Polisena issued this statement through Deputy Chief of Staff Dominique Turner:
“We already have a built-in legal services budget within the town’s annual operating budget. The cost to the town depends on how far the case goes. What I can say is that whatever the legal costs are, it will be minimal compared to the continued maintenance of decrepit [municipal] buildings and cost of services and education for 252, 100% low-income apartments.”
An official condemnation action will be filed in Superior Court, Providence, probably by April, Town Solicitor William Conley Jr. told Rhode Island Current after the council’s vote Monday night.
“It’s clearly a sham,” Kelley Morris Salvatore, the Providence lawyer representing the project developer, said in an interview Tuesday. “They didn’t have any public discussions about a municipal facilities complex, but decided they needed one once they didn’t want our project.”
Town officials said the search for a new public-safety complex site had been years in the making, choosing to operate under the radar until an adequate location was found.
The lawsuit says Polisena’s push to use eminent domain came only after he made multiple public declarations that he would use all the governmental power he had to halt the project. Polisena has stated he prefers to see single-family homes built in Johnston, not high-density apartment complexes.
“The Santoro family refused to buckle under this intimidation and declined to withdraw or alter its plans to build affordable housing,” the lawsuit reads. “The town, in bad faith and with spite and actual animus, exercised eminent domain to force the Santoro Family into a choice: either alter or halt the affordable housing plans, or be deprived of the family’s land by government force.”
Polisena has described the working conditions in the police and fire departments and the town buildings as “decrepit” and said first responders work “in squalor.”
Both Police Chief Mark Vieira and Fire Chief David Iannuccilli spoke about the detoriating conditions of their buildings at the special council meeting.
All three town buildings are approaching the end of their operational usefulness, the mayor and chiefs say.
Residents attending the January meeting shared their thoughts on the newly announced plan.
Jairson Ascencao, a town resident, spoke out against the proposal to supplant the proposed apartments with a municipal campus and asked the council to seek a compromise.
“The reason I came here primarily is because of the housing crisis in Rhode Island and America. Two hundred and fifty plus units of housing is an extreme amount of housing, and it’s something people have needed,” Astentao said, acknowledging that there was a need for new town buildings, too.
“It’s a real trouble getting housing and getting a place where your family can stay. I really ask that you consider what your residents need.”
The projected cost of the town campus project has yet to be determined, but Polisena shared in the meeting that town officials were looking to fund the project by modifying their strategy on a new high school.
Town government has been exploring the possibility of building a new high school.
If the court reverses the town’s land seizure, the developer intends to continue its plan to build the apartment complex, Morris Salvatore said.
An online search shows parcels of land in Johnston for sale ranging from $159,000 for 1.48 acres off Anglewood Avenue, $250,000 for just a little over an acre off Central Avenue, and $499,000 for 0.46 acre lot off Atwood Avenue. But the value of land varies by its proximity to utilities and zoning regulations, said Rhode Island Builders Association CEO John V. Marcantonio.
“Like anything else, it all depends on what you can do with the land,” Marcantonio said.
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