dmitted or judicially determined that a proposed
condemnation is for a public purpose and within the statutory authority,
a political or judicially nonreviewable question may emerge, to wit, the
necessity or expediency of the condemnation of the particular
property."[636] The necessity and expediency of the taking are
legislative questions to be determined by such agency and in such mode
as the State may designate.[637]

What Constitutes a Taking For a Public Use

To constitute a public use within the law of eminent domain, it is not
essential that an entire community should directly participate in or
enjoy an improvement, and, in ascertaining whether a use is public, not
only present demands of the public but those which may be fairly
anticipated in the future may be considered.[638] Moreover, it is also
not necessary that property should be absolutely taken, in the narrowest
sense of the word, to bring the case within the protection of this
constitutional provision, but there may be such serious interruption to
the common and necessary use of property as will be equivalent to a
taking. "It would be * * * [an] unsatisfactory result, if * * *, it
shall be held that if the government refrains from the absolute
conversion of real property to the uses of the public, it can destroy
its value entirely, can inflict irreparable and permanent injury to any
extent, can in effect, subject it to total destruction without making
any compensation, because, in the narrowest sense of that word, it [has]
not [been] taken for the public use."[639]

Takings for a purpose that is public hitherto have been held to comprise
the following: a privately owned water supply system formerly operated
under contract with the municipality effecting the taking;[640] a right
of way across a neighbor's land for the enlargement of an irrigation
ditch therein to enable the taker to obtain water for irrigating land
that would otherwise remain valueless;[641] a right of way across a
placer mining claim for the aerial bucket line of a mining
corporation;[642] land, water, and water rights for the production of
electric power by a public utility;[643] water rights by an interurban
railway company for the production of power in excess of current
needs;[644] places of historical interest;[645] land taken for the
purpose of exchange with a railroad company for a portion of its right
of way, required for widening a highway;[646] land by a railway for a
spur