At the end of the day you will pay more to fight this than the cost of the line, which again seems like it already needs to be replaced. 

That said, fighting over that is a waste of time at this point. 

If it doesn't generously cash flow, cancel today and start fighting for the EMD.

He would like to get it settled without a fight and without the time delay, if possible, so he should be reasonable to work with (as long as you are also reasonable).If the city wants the big project badly enough to actually take your property by eminent domain, you are in a position to get the city to agree to some rezoning or special consideration.

-Will there always be an element of vacancy I will be fighting due to the large amount of bedrooms?

Haha.Sure there are good residential deals out there right now but they are few and far between and everyone is fighting for them.  

And with no EMD being held by escrow, this is an even easier case as the two parties will not fight over who gets the EMD and who is in breach of contract. 

Always fighting the good fight to keep people who literally DO NOTHING except put a sign in your front lawn, put your property in the MLS then pray someone else comes along with a buyer just so they can take a whack of your equity, yet he always labels wholesalers as frauds and scammers.

Big development in the fight against the "cartel".

This can help if you have other heirs that are fighting with each other and you come in as a third party or you can also drag out the process through legal means in order to obtain more interest from heirs that may not be willing to negotiate.