Community Relations
The University's rapid expansion has created tension in the city-university relationship with issues such as growth planning. In 2006, the Board of Visitors approved the invocation of eminent domain against a neighboring business, a funeral parlor, to make way for the school's new Performing Arts Center. Before eminent domain was exercised, the property owner accepted a purchase offer from the University. In the May 2006 city election, incumbent mayor Larry Rogers, who also serves on JMU's Board of Visitors, lost his bid for reelection to a JMU graduate. JMU has nearly doubled in size in the last 20 years. JMU purchased the former Harrisonburg High School building, now known as Memorial Hall, and promised to keep some of the important features intact for the benefit of the community.
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