Here we have eminent domain where the government pays fair market value for any property that the municipality needs, so what people do is throw a fit and say eminent domain is unfair and their land is being stolen and then the city pays those people a lot more than fair value for their land. This guy could claim that he had other plans for that spot and then add that to his claim, sounds like his property is a large ranch though so he has lots of places he could build on it, I doubt the pipe will render the entire ranch unbuildable.
Occasionally people oppose these actions out of principle but 99% of the time it is just to get more money even if they claim they are doing it for the principle.