Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property for a "public use" so long as the property owner is paid "just compensation." The decision to acquire private property for a public project is to be made by the condemning agency only after a thorough review of the project, which typically includes public hearings. Condemnation is the eminent domain process.

Just compensation is the fair market value of the property being acquired by the agency. California Law defines fair market value as "the highest price on the date of valuation that would be agreed to by a seller, being willing to sell but under no particular or urgent necessity for so doing, nor obliged to sell, and a buyer, being ready, willing, and able to buy but under no particular necessity for so doing, each dealing with the other with full knowledge of all the uses and purposes for which the property is reasonably adaptable and available."