§ 1240.310.Definitions

Substitute condemnation lets a public entity take one piece of property to hand over to an owner in exchange for a different piece of property the entity needs, a way to get the needed parcel while sparing that owner from losing land outright. Section 1240.310 supplies the vocabulary the rest of Article 4 relies on.

"Necessary property" is the property the public entity is authorized to acquire by eminent domain for its public use, the parcel the project truly requires. "Substitute property" is the different parcel the entity acquires instead, to trade to the necessary property's owner in exchange for that owner giving up the necessary property.

Every other section in this article, including the conditions for a substitute exchange under § 1240.320, the forced-relocation variant under § 1240.330, and the additional-property provision under § 1240.350, builds on this basic distinction between what the project needs and what gets offered in trade for it.