Elizabeth Mata bought 94 acres in North Carolina in 1973; an I-540 corridor later restricted 9.93 acres

A long legal fight over land restrictions tied to a road project in North Carolina has reached a key point. The state Supreme Court has sent a Wake County landowner's compensation case back to trial judges so they can decide how much the property was worth. Elizabeth Mata bought 94 acres of land in 1973. Decades later, state transportation officials set aside a 9.93-acre strip across her property for the planned Interstate 540 outer loop. The restriction limited her ability to build on or sell that part of the property for nearly 20 years. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the restrictions imposed under the state's former Map Act amounted to an indefinite taking of property rights. The justices sent the case back to a lower court to decide exactly how much money the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) must pay Mata.Decade-long restrictions on private propertyThe dispute began with the Transportation Corridor Official Map Act, a state law passed in 1987. The law allowed the NCDOT to file maps showing the planned routes of future highways. Once a map was filed with local officials, owners of property inside the marked area could not get building permits or d...