A national property rights advocate is hailing a New Jersey appeals court decision this week as one with “nationwide implications.”

A three-judge panel unanimously overruled a decision that allowed Glassboro to take property from a landowner through the use of eminent domain without designating the specific purpose for the acquisition.

The Institute for Justice, which filed a supporting legal brief in the case, said the ruling “affirms that this means the government must meet real burdens before it forcibly acquires property.”

“The importance of the decision is to say that there absolutely are limits on eminent domain power and those limits can and should be enforced by the courts,” said Robert McNamara, of the Institute for Justice.

The case sprung from a dispute in Glassboro in an area near the borough and Rowan University’s ongoing large-scale redevelopment effort to create a walkable downtown that connects the college and borough with a mix of retail, residential, and educational space. The borough sought to acquire a nearly one-acre property on the edge of the redevelopment area in September of 2017. That triggered the court action which concluded this week.

“We hold that if a landowner within the redevelopment area contests the necessity of a condemnation…the statute logically requires the condemning authority to articulate a definitive need to acquire the parcel for an identified redevelopment project,” the decision states. “That articulated need must be more specific than the mere ‘stockpiling’ of real estate that might, hypothetically, be useful for a redevelopment project in the future.”

M. James Maley, Jr., an attorney who represented the borough in the court action, and Borough Administrator Joe Brigandi Jr. declined to comment Tuesday. Glassboro successfully won the first stage of the action with a superior court ruling approving its decision to acquire the property.

But Monday’s ruling was clearly a victory for the defendants.

“The court rejected the theory of the municipality that they can take it and plan later what to do with it,” said R. William Potter, an attorney for the landowner and a pair of recent Rowan graduates who had an agreement of sale for the property. “This is a very important area that needed clarification. Some municipalities that we’ve encountered will take property without having a specific reason to do so. They simply are land-banking or stockpiling, as the court calls it.”

Glassboro said it needed the property located on North Academy Street for additional parking near the $450 million mixed-use development project near Rowan’s growing campus. But Potter said the borough’s own planners had recently reported a need to reduce a glut of parking in the area, which includes a multi-level indoor lot near the site.

“The condemning authority in such a contested case must present to the court at least some evidence – consisting of facts, expert opinion, or both – that provides reasonable substantiation of the need,” the ruling said.

Potter said Glassboro tried to “low-ball” his clients with an offer of $125,000 for the property, a grassy lot with only a shed on it. The property owners and former Rowan students who were buying the property had previously agreed to the same sale price, according to the ruling.

Now, Glassboro is obligated to reimburse the defendants for Potter’s legal fees, he said. The ruling could be appealed to the state Supreme Court but Potter said he doesn’t expect that to happen.

“It provides essential protection for property owners of willy-nilly taking of their property when there’s no necessity for doing that,” he said. “It also protects taxpayers who don’t have to foot the bill for property that will essentially sit abandoned and vacant until the municipality figures out what to do with it.”

McNamara said municipalities in New Jersey are among the nation’s leaders in eminent domain use.

“Increasingly government officials with the power of eminent domain are engaging what amounts to land speculation so that they can hold on to it with the hope that some worthwhile project will come along,” he said. “That’s happening increasingly in New Jersey.”

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips