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In this order, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois temporarily enjoined enforcement of Chicago suburb Glen Ellyn‘s prohibition on renting property for less than 30 days.

Blakelick owns a five-bedroom single family home that when purchased was not located in Glen Ellyn. Since 2022, it has been offering the home for short-term rental on platforms like Airbnb. But in 2024, the property was annexed by the Village of Glen Ellyn. Blakelick continued to rent the property for less than 30 days. 

The dispute apparently began six months earlier when a neighbor began complaining about noise, culminating in the threat to “do everything in [his] capability to see to it that such use of property is banned in this area.” Slip op. at 2. Apparently he was successful, because in 2025, the Village, now having jurisdiction over the property, adopted an ordinance prohibiting owners from…

Continue Reading Property Owner Likely To Succeed On Claim That Prohibition Of Short-Term Rentals Is A Penn Central Taking

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It was on this day in 1928 when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its second most famous decision about zoning, Nectow v. City of Cambridge., 277 U.S. 183 (1928). 

We say “second” because everyone knows that the first is the Court’s decision issued just two years earlier which generally upheld comprehensive use, height, and density regulations as a valid exercise of the government’s police power to regulate property uses to further the public health, safety, welfare, or morals. See Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U S. 365 (1926). 

Partly because of the hype surrounding Euclid and the broad governmental embrace of exclusionary land use policies that Euclid unleashed, we think that Nectow has not received the attention it is due. After all, it should be seen as the companion case to Euclid: it was authored by same Justice who wrote Euclid (Justice Sutherland)…

Continue Reading Happy 97th Birthday, Nectow v. City of Cambridge!

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following.

This is Fane Lozman. You know his name. Yes, the guy who has taken on the City of Riviera Beach, Florida twice at the Supreme Court, and is now coming back for a third shot on goal. Houseboat guy. Public hearing gadfly guy. And now, maybe the ripeness guy.

Lozman has filed a cert petition asking the Court to review the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion which dismissed his regulatory takings claim as unripe.

Here’s the Questions Presented:

Fane Lozman has a contentious relationship with the City of Riviera Beach, Florida. The City’s mistreatment of Mr. Lozman has twice required this Court’s intervention. See Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, 568 U.S. 115 (2013); Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, 585 U.S. 87 (2018).

In this third chapter, Mr. Lozman was forced to sue the City…

Continue Reading SCOTUS Hat Trick? Houseboat Guy Returns For Shot At Lucas Ripeness

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Check out the new report by our Pacific Legal Foundation colleagues Kyle Sweetland and Brian Hodges, “How to Protect Property Rights from Improperly Assessed Exactions” (Apr. 2025).

This research in brief shows how exactions grew and increased home construction costs over a 16-year period. It provides a history of exactions, showing how they have frequently moved away from their original impact-mitigation purpose and how that shift in purpose risks violating the Constitution. It illustrates an improperly assessed exaction and provides examples of how exactions have hampered construction during the present housing crisis. It concludes by examining how state legislatures can help set boundaries on local exactions and protect property rights.

It’s short, its sweet, it’s straightforward and understandable. What more could you want? Oh yeah, unlike exactions … it’s free. No strings attached. Check it out.

Sweetland & Hodges, How to Protect Property Rights from Improperly Assessed Continue Reading New Report: “How to Protect Property Rights from Improperly Assessed Exactions” (Sweetland & Hodges)

We’ve had this one in our queue for a bit, but it seems now is a good time to lay out the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s opinion in McIntosh v. Madisonville, No. 24-5383 (Jan. 21, 2025). After all, the Due Process Clause seems to be in the news a lot lately, and this case explains what process is due property owners before they are deprived of that property.

Here’s the story. The city, after a code enforcement officer’s inspection (responding to a tenant complaint) declared that one of McIntosh’s mobile homes had mold and deemed it unsafe and unsalvageable. Letter followed notifying the owner of the city’s condemnation of the property, advising him that he had 30 days to submit plans for getting things in order, or else the city was going to tear it down. The city also put notice on the property itself.

Continue Reading CA6: The Predeprivation Hearing Required By Due Process Can’t Just Exist On Paper (And An Informal, And Possibly Made-Up Chance To Negotiate Isn’t Enough)

The key quote from the Illinois Appellate Court’s recent opinion in Robinson v. City of Chicago, No. 1-23-2174 (Mar. 24, 2025), in which a property owner challenged the inclusion of his property in a new Chicago historic preservation district? This seemingly innocuous sentence setting out the standard of review:

The plaintiff acknowledges that his substantive due process and equal protection challenges to the ordinance designating the District as a Chicago landmark are subject to rational basis review.

Slip op. at 13.

Those of you for whom this ain’t your first rodeo know that rational basis review (aka aliens might have done it) being invoked isn’t a good sign for a challenger. It nearly always tells the challenger “you lose, no matter what.” And here, that prediction plays out: the court rejected the property owner’s arguments that the city’s designation of his small neighborhood — a neighborhood that…

Continue Reading Who Cares Your “Evidence” Shows This Is Just An Old Part Of Chicago – All That Matters Is The City Says It’s Historic

These days, when we have cases where there’s tinkering with the terms of rental agreements, we most often see local governments using their police power to force property owners to rent their properties on a long-term (more than 30 days) basis.

But in Bigelow Arizona TX-344, LP v. Town of Addison, No. 05-23-00642-CV (Apr. 4, 2025), the Texas Court of Appeals was dealing with a town ordinance that went the other way: it redefined the definition of “hotel,” which had the effect of prohibiting an extended-stay hotel from continuing to rent 95% of its rooms on a long-term basis under a nearly 30-year old special use permit, and forced what had been long term stays to become short-term stays.

Why? The town’s “desire for motels and hotels to operate so that rooms are available for the Town’s tourists[.]” Slip op. at 3. Really? Read a bit further and you…

Continue Reading Tex App Dismisses Penn Central Claim – But What’s It Doing Weighing The Facts?

Today we have a guest post by New York colleague Jennifer Polovetsky, who writes about an exactions case that is headed for the New York Court of Appeals. Disclosure: our firm represents the property owners in that court. 

Thanks to Jennifer (and to the New York Law Journal) for allowing us to republish her intriguing piece.

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NY Zoning Law Mandating Contributions Deemed an Unconstitutional Taking

by Jennifer Polovetsky

A few years ago, on December 15, 2021, the City of New York (the City) amended §143–13 of the City Zoning Resolution (the ZR Amendment). A portion of this ZR Amendment required property owners to pay a mandatory, nonrefundable contribution to the SoHo–NoHo Arts Fund (Arts Fund), as a precondition to filing for a permit to convert joint living-work quarters for artists (JLWQA) to unlimited residential use.

What is the problem with the ZR Amendment, you may ask? Well, according

…
Continue Reading Guest Post (Jennifer Polovetsky): “NY Zoning Law Mandating Contributions Deemed an Unconstitutional Taking”

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Registration is open and underway for this year’s edition of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute in Denver, March 5-7, 2025. Location: University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

This conference is more what we’ll call “land usey” than ALI-CLE’s Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (as the respective titles suggest), but there’s a lot at RMLUI for those whose practices lean more on the eminent domain side than the land usey. As we know, any attempt to draw a clean line between these practices is futile, and there’s tons of crossover. That’s why we’ll be there, downloading the latest.

As always, there’s a great a la carte menu of programs and tracks for attendees to choose from, including sessions on “Sheetz and Exactions,” “Brownfields Re-Re-Development,” “Managing Growth and Infrastructure in the Southwest,” “ADUs for Aging in Place,” and, thankfully, “Legal Ethics.” And some add-on workshops the day…

Continue Reading 2025 Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, Denver (March 5-7, Denver U. Law School)

Check this out, a recent Fourth Branch pod featuring lawprof Donald Kochan and our law firm colleague Jeremy Talcott, “Explainer Episode 85 – Rebuilding California: Lessons from the Pacific Palisades Fire.”

Here’s the description:

The 2025 Pacific Palisades Fire has underscored the challenges of building in California’s complex regulatory landscape. In response, Governor Newsom issued an executive order suspending CEQA and Coastal Act requirements to expedite reconstruction, raising important questions about the future of development in the state. In this podcast, experts Jeremy Talcott and Donald Kochan examine California’s regulatory environment before the disaster and the broader implications of its permitting processes in the effort to rebuild. Join us for an in-depth discussion on balancing efficient recovery with long-term regulatory considerations.

The money quote from Jeremy:

And I think this fire really offers a very good inflection point for a reimagining or a revisiting of the utility…

Continue Reading Fourth Branch Podcast: Talcott & Kochan On “Rebuilding California: Lessons from the Pacific Palisades Fire”