I wonder what would happen if they started making plans to move. I know farmer/developers just outside of Des Moines who own several thousand acres they farm now but plan to turn into a suburb in 10 years - they would be glad to sign a 5 year option to buy contract on a large campus for cheap (you can even tell them there is a 99% chance they won't buy, they are going to farm it for a few years and then sell it so they are happy to take a tiny sum). I would be shocked if there were not similar situations a lot closer to their campus.

The idea is to put pressure on the locals - if you don't shape up we will move. A significant number probably like the college nearby overall.

Those other neighbors would say no too. The end.

If the locals don't like the college moving is an option. Not cheap, but you can sell the old campus to get a lot back.

That’s insane. It should not be possible for neighbors to force someone to move their business.

I have trouble sympathizing with either side here. I’m not dialed into the issue, but I imagine that the homeowners in the area are property-tax paying members of the community with just as much voice as anyone else in the community.

It’s also not like there’s nowhere else on earth to put a school campus either. They’d hardly be the first school with multiple campuses that are separated if they didn’t insist on building it where they currently are.

“Insist on building it where they currently are” - telling them they can’t doesn’t mean “oh go build it somewhere else”. It means they have to sell that land, go buy other land (which could take decades), and then have the same fight.

Telling people what they could use their land for (within building code) is only legal in the US because the SCOTUS said it was legal to in order to keep Black people out of neighborhoods. It should be unconstitutional, and would be if not for racism!