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A comment on A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center. Parent comment

Re:A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Bu... by sandworm101 on Monday June 08, 2026 @12:46PM (#48447729)
The law addressed this centuries ago. The general rule is that you can enforce such rules for a generation plus twenty years. That may seem like a long time, but the rule prevents the "cold hand from the grave" dictating how living people should act.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities

In this case, the farmer should have talked to a lawyer first. There are ways to set thing up to prevent misuse.

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Re:A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Bu... by selimthegrim on Monday June 08, 2026 @01:20PM (#48448181)
Apparently not in South Dakota.
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Re:A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Bu... by sandworm101 on Monday June 08, 2026 @02:23PM (#48449204)
It can be done. A basic strategy would be to donate the land,but retain "air rights", retain an easment controlling all biuldings over a few feet tall. This is regularly done to protect views when selling land downhill of a house. Farms and parks would be OK, but not construction of a datacenter.

But governments have eminant domain powers. They can always force a purchase if they really want to.

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