Administrative law

Check out this language from a recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of D.C.:

The CityCenterDC development may be a laudable and exciting public-private partnership, and it may entail a more comprehensive level of urban planning and cooperation than the ordinary project, but the exercise will result in the creation of

Here’s an interesting case upcoming on the Hawaii Supreme Court’s oral argument calendar that is worth following. (April 29, 2014, at 10:00 a.m. – the court is taking the show on the road, and the arguments will be at the gym at Kealakehe High School, in Kailua-Kona, on the Big Island.)

In Molfino v.

The Hawaii Supreme Court has issued an opinion in Kauai Springs, Inc. v. Kauai Planning Comm’n, No. SCWC 29440 (Feb. 28, 2014). In its preview of the case, the court framed the issue thusly:

In its application, Kauai Springs argues that the ICA gravely erred by: 1) concluding that Kauai Springs impliedly assented

Word comes our way that a bill has been introduced in the Hawaii legislature that would eliminate the primary jurisdiction doctrine and the requirement to exhaust administrative remedies for a narrow class of cases to allow a neighbor to “enforce zoning violations related to transient vacation rental on neighboring property.” 

In Pavsek v. Sandvold

One portion of the federal Uniform Relocation Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4651, requires Federal agencies participating in projects requiring the acquisition of private property to be guided by certain policies that “assure consistent treatment for owners . . . and . . . .promote public confidence in Federal land acquisition practices,” such as (and we’re paraphrasing

Looks like they’re at it again, a solution in search of a problem: a bill has been proposed in the Hawaii Legislature to create an “Environmental Court,” whose mission would be to handle “environmental disputes” arising under a wide range of state statutes:

…administrative proceedings and proceedings for declaratory judgment on the validity of agency

Property

There’s not much doubt that the now-notorious large-scale unpermitted upland grading and grubbing by a Kauai property owner on its private land caused the runoff that catastrophically damaged the adjacent beach and the reef offshore. The damage was pretty bad, and resulted in the “largest storm water settlement [with the federal EPA] in the United

Today, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued an option in Diamond v. Dobbin, No. SCWC-30573 (Jan. 27, 2014), a case about shoreline certifications that we’ve been following.

It’s a beach case, obviously, but not about ownership. Shoreline certifications approved by the State Department of Land and Natural Resources are used as the baseline from which

Here are the cert briefs in Kellberg v. Yuen, No. SCWC-12-0000266 (Haw. Jan. 22, 2014), the case in which the Hawaii Supreme Court held that there is only one “final decision” that a challenger must administratively appeal when objecting, and that due process requires the agency to give a challenger notice of the administrative

The Hawaii Supreme Court has issued an opinion that is very good for property owners and anyone who must use the administrative appeals process. [Disclosure: we represent the prevailing Petitioner in this case.]

In Kellberg v. Yuen, No. SCWC-12-0000266 (Jan. 22, 2014), the unanimous court, in a detailed opinion by Justice Pollack, held that