What is a property owner to do when faced with a regulatory agency asserting that its permission must be obtained before the property can be used, when the property owner believes that the agency does not have authority over her land?
According to the agency, the property owner has two choices: she can either file
Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following. In Bridge Aina Lea, LLC v. State of Hawaii Land Use Comm’n, the plaintiff filed its complaint in state circuit court alleging that the LUC violated state and federal law (due process, takings, vested rights, and more) when it reclassified “urban” land on the Big
Today’s Ninth Circuit opinion in Vandevere v. Lloyd, No. 09-35957 (July 11, 2011), raises a couple of interesting questions having little to do with the merits of whether Alaska’s commercial fishing regulations worked a taking or a due process violation because they shortened the fishing season and limited the number of fish that can
It’s a well-worn refrain, heard often in the environmental context: “The property owner wouldn’t be in this fix if she just ___________.” Fill in the blank with “commissioned an Environmental Assessment” — or “Environmental Impact Statement,” or “applied for a development permit,” or similar.
At first blush, it’s an appealing argument — “Just follow the
A new case worth watching has been filed in Hawaii state court (Third Circuit, the Big Island) that involves allegations of vested rights and estoppel, Nollan/Dolan exactions, state and federal due process and takings, inverse condemnation, and equal protection.The
See below, the Complaint in Bridge Aina Le’a v. State of Hawaii Land Use
Beginning at 9:00 a.m. Central Time today, the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Severance v. Patterson, No. 09-0378 (Nov. 5, 2010), the case in which the court held 6-2 that Texas does not recognize a “rolling” public beachfront access easement, without proof of prescription. In March, the court agreed to rehear the
What we are reading today:
Here’s Bettendorf v. St. Croix County, No. 10-1359 (Jan. 20, 2011) a 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, another regulatory takings opinion we’ve been meaning to post for a while. The case involves a property owner’s claim that the county’s changing the zoning on his land from commercial
In Colony Cove Properties, LLC v. City of Carson, No. 09-57039 (Mar. 28, 2011), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s dismissal of a property owner’s claim that the City of Carson’s mobilehome rent control ordinance is a taking. The District Court dismissed the facial takings claim because
As we noted here (when we posted our article), the latest issue of the Vermont Law Review deals with the U.S. Supreme Court’s “judicial takings” case, Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, 130 S.Ct. 2592 (June 17, 2010).
In eight essays, the authors of several of the many amicus