Finnish city of Järvenpää votes to pursue compulsory purchase of land, threatening resident’s home

The city of Järvenpää in southern Finland has voted to seek permission for compulsory land acquisition in the Haarajoki station area and Pietilä district, a move that could force local resident Eira Storm from the home she has lived in for decades, Yle reports.

The city council voted 31 to 17 on Monday to apply to the Finnish Ministry of the Environment for a compulsory purchase permit covering approximately eight hectares of land across seven properties near the Lahti direct rail line. The land has not been acquired through voluntary sales.

Storm, who built the house with her husband in the 1970s, is the only property owner who would be forced to leave her home if the acquisition goes ahead. She watched the council debate from the public gallery.

“I am disappointed. I had hoped the decision could have gone the other way,” she said.

The city says it needs the land to address a shortage of building plots and to accommodate population growth. Plans for the area include approximately one thousand new homes and new jobs, and the city argues that unified ownership of the land is necessary for planning to succeed.

Storm disputes the justification. She says there are already enough plots available, that many apartments in the area stand empty, and that nearby agricultural fields could also be used for construction.

The city offered Storm 330,000 euros for her property including outbuildings, which it said exceeded the market value. Storm says the sum would not be enough to buy a comparable house and plot elsewhere.

Compulsory purchase is a rarely used tool for Finnish municipalities to acquire undeveloped land. Permits are applied for at a rate of roughly two per year nationally, and require approval from the Ministry of the Environment.

Among the council’s largest parties, the National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats largely supported the application including Storm’s property. The Greens voted unanimously in favour. The Finns Party would have rejected the compulsory purchase application entirely. A defeated alternative proposal would have excluded Storm’s property from the acquisition.