As we noted last week, the expanding costs of the Honolulu Rail project has forced Honolulu’s mayor to ask whether construction should be delayed or stopped entirely, short of its planned terminus at Ala Moana shopping center. “Middle Street” became the new rail watchword, even though stopping it there would omit — temporarily or
A land use diversion, to take you into the weekend. As land users know, the vested rights and zoning estoppel doctrines are all about timing. When did the government gave the green light” (however that is defined in your jurisdiction), what did the property owner do after that, and when did the government decide “hey, wait
There’s a lot of procedural history to digest in the Michigan Court of Appeals’ opinion in AFT Michigan v. Michigan, No. 303702 (June 7, 2016), because it is merely the latest in a long string of opinions from that court, and the Michigan Supreme Court, interspersed with the Michigan legislature’s attempts to react. The
It’s a good day. You win your takings case in the Texas Supreme Court. True, it’s a narrow 5-4 victory, and it merely reverses summary judgment against you, which means only that you live to fight another day. But a win is a win, we always say. The decision is based on the Texas Constitution, which
As readers know, from time to time, we undertake what might be called “eminent domain tourism” — visiting the sites of famous and infamous cases when we’re in the neighborhood. Hadacheck, Kaiser Aetna, Nollan, Dolan, and PruneYard, for example.
Perhaps the best illustration of the “holdout” comes from Seattle (see
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The oral argument heard this morning in the “Nai Aupuni” cases (Akina v. Hawaii, No. 15-17134, and No. 15-17453) by a panel of the Ninth Circuit (Chief Judge Thomas, and Judges Callahan and Murguia, riding circuit in Honolulu), was a study in contrasts.
On one side, representing the plaintiffs-appellants, was a lawyer from Washington D.C.’s
In a surprise move, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell today announced that he supports suspending the Honolulu rail project at Middle Street, at least until there’s more money in the coffers. See “Mayor, Council chairman say rail should end at Middle Street for now” from Marcel Honore at the Star-Advertiser.
We think the
A new(er) law review article, worth reading, from Dean Shelly Saxer, “When Local Government Misbehaves,” 2016 Utah L. Rev. 105 (2016). Here’s the abstract:
In this article, Dean Saxer examines the Supreme Court’s decision in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. In that land use case, the Court held that proposed
All you preemption, agriculture, municipal and local government law junkies, take note: later today, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals will hear arguments in three cases, each of which is an appeal of the District Court’s seriatim invalidation of county ordinances which regulated GMO and pesticide use in Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii Counties