Hacker News Reader

Comment by makecheck | Hacker News Reader

There is also the concept of “ground cover” in some places.

I have seen office buildings create gigantic parking lots just to “occupy” all their land so that the land cannot be taken away later. If land is completely undeveloped then it can be reclaimed in some situations, e.g. someone decides they want to build a railway.

View on HN

Building a parking lot will in no way save you from the imminent domain powers of people who want to build roads and railroads. This strikes me as some kind of urban legend. Every place I've lived has mandated some ratio of parking to floor space in new office buildings, which is why office buildings are surrounded by parking.

Pedantic correction: The term is "eminent domain". In fairness, if someone exercises the power of eminent domain, the domain will imminently be theirs, but that's neither here nor there.

That said, under eminent domain the government is required to pay you the fair market price of the land it is taking from you. That's why it's in companies' best interest to not let their land sit undeveloped.

Maybe a railway isn’t a realistic example. A nature preserve might be a better one; they can’t decide to cordon off an area for wildlife if you’ve already destroyed all the trees, whereas untouched land might fall into that category.

The examples I can think of were in Texas and I’m sure the rules vary by region.

I highly doubt people in Texas are building parking lots to protect against a nature preserve. It's generally because of parking requirements established by building codes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com