Farmland conversion and landfill sites

[westwardloo]

That's is where we are free to disagree. In my opinion a manufacturer that will provided thousands of jobs to the region and probably 1000's of spin off manufacturing jobs will provide a common benefit to our society, so I have no problem with expropriation in this case. 

A land assembly of this size would be impossible without expropriation.

Why would a land assembly of this size be impossible without expropriation? Housing developers assemble six properties inside and outside of the city all the time. There's no reason to suggest that such an assembly is impossible.

I am not saying that jobs are not a benefit to society, but you misunderstand what I mean when I say "commons". The jobs, the property, will all be owned and controlled by private interests. Whether the jobs benefit the city doesn't change whether the property is private or not.

Like I said, if the city (and by implication you, and all who support this) feel that industrial lands of that scale are valuable enough to justify expropriation, then the city should expropriate those lands and retain ownership of the property by the public, and then lease them to whatever corporation they feel will best utilize the land. That way, the public retains control over the common property.

Those land assemblies take place over the years sometimes decades. We do not have that type of timeline for a project of this scale. 

The Region would take on way too much liability to own the land that a factory of this size would be on. I can't see the municipalities legal department wanting to take on this much risk.  The tax revenue from this project would be worth more to the public then the liability of being the landlord.