COMMONWEALTH BEACON: Was a vote to seize Northeastern University land for conservation in ‘bad faith?’

                                                  

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Was a vote to seize Northeastern University land for conservation in ‘bad faith?’    February 3, 2026 By Jennifer Smith

Justices on the state’s highest court are wrestling with whether they should be second-guessing the intentions of Nahant town meeting voters who wanted to prevent Northeastern University from developing a stretch of land in the ocean-facing town.

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Voters in the tiny North Shore community, which sits on a one-square-mile peninsula that juts into Massachusetts Bay, decided in 2021 to seize, by eminent domain, about 12 of 21 acres of land owned by Northeastern University since the 1960s to preserve it for conservation.

In a legal fight that’s climbed all the way to the Supreme Judicial Court, the town is asking the court to approve the land taking, while Northeastern argues that conservation was just a pretext to stand in the way of development, making the seizure an improper use of eminent domain powers.

A lower court ruled by summary judgment without a trial in favor of Northeastern, which has maintained a marine sciences laboratory on the peninsula for decades.

In oral arguments before the SJC on Monday, justices seemed skeptical that, even if they overturned the lower court ruling, the town deserves an immediate ruling in its favor based on the facts before the court. That skepticism seemed to hinge on what Justice Dalia Wendlandt said was continued disagreement about “the motives of the town.”

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