Man sues Massachusetts town for right to build home on his own island

In 1955, the Nelson family bought Gooseberry Island, a four-acre island in Massachusetts’ Popponesset Bay. They hoped to build a small family home on the vacant plot, like many of their neighbors had on nearby islands. 

The local government had other ideas. 

Although Gooseberry Island was already zoned for the development of a single-family home—and owned by a family who wanted to build such a home—the Town of Mashpee wanted the island as a nature preserve. But once Mashpee realized it could not afford the cost of taking the island by eminent domain, local bureaucrats instead denied every permit and proposal the family submitted, forcing the owners to keep the island undeveloped, as a de facto nature preserve. 

After years of good faith attempts to comply with constantly changing conditions, Matthew Haney—trustee of the Gooseberry Island Trust established by the Nelson family—is suing the town for the right to build a home on the island. 

Under the Fifth Amendment, the government must provide just compensation for prohibiting an owner from making reasonable economic uses of their own private property. The Town of Mashpee can purchase Gooseberry Island for a nature preserve, but it cannot deny Matthew Haney his right to make use of the land unless it pays for that regulatory taking.