Foxconn Eminent Domain Trial Starts This Week

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — Mount Pleasant residents Rodney and Cathy Jensen have lived in their home on the East Frontage Road near Durand Ave. for more than two decades, and they're hoping a Racine County Circuit Court judge rules in their favor so they can stay.

The problem is, their property is located on 2.9 acres in Area II of the $10 billion Foxconn electronics plant construction zone - and the village wants their land.

After the Jensens rejected an offer from the village over the purchase price of their property, negotiations reached a standstill between the two parties. The village tried invoking eminent domain to force the Jensens from their home.

The Jensens promptly filed a lawsuit against the Village and its Community Development Authority, effectively contesting the Village’s right to take their property under eminent domain for the Foxconn project.

“We raised our kids here, this is my grandkids’ safe place,” Cathy Jensen said in a Journal Times report. “Our house just isn’t for sale.”

According to A Better Mount Pleasant, a local watchdog group that is focusing on development aspects of the Foxconn project, the Village’s road plans showed they needed only .1333 acres of the Jensen’s front yard for road construction, but it took the entire 2.9 acres and their home.

"Work on the East Frontage Road has already been completed and the Jensen’s still live in their home," spokeswoman Kelly Gallaher wrote in a statement Monday. "The Village didn’t need the Jensen property for the road project, the Village wanted their property because it promised to give it to Foxconn."

The trial is scheduled to begin on the morning of Wednesday, July 10 before Judge Michael Piontek. It is expected to last two days.