Not everyone owns a luxury resort. Most of the landowners probably aren't that rich. They just happened to own some rural land when the surrounding area was dec

Not everyone owns a luxury resort. Most of the landowners probably aren't that rich. They just happened to own some rural land when the surrounding area was declared a national park, and most rural land isn't particularly valuable. As for the government, why waste time and money on a politically unpopular move (eminent domain) when they have no immediate use for that land? Since most rural land is cheap, buying might be cheaper than the cost of a potential lawsuit. Sooner or later, landowners will die and their descendents will want to move somewhere else. The government, on the other hand, can afford to wait for years, decades, even centuries.