Land use law

Opinions reversing grants of summary judgment tend to be unexciting by nature because they are all about whether one side or the other submitted enough evidence to create a factual dispute that a jury must resolve. Civil procedure mavens rejoice, but the substantive law in the opinion can be dry. The latest inverse condemnation case…

This just crossed our desk in a case we’ve been following (link includes the numerous merits and amicus briefs filed in the case), the California Supreme Court’s opinion, authored by the Chief Justice in California Building Industry Ass’n v. City of San Jose, No. S212072 (June 15, 2015). 

The bottom line is the court …

Honchariw v. County of Stanislaus, No. F069145 (June 3, 2015), is one especially for you Californians, addressing the somewhat unusual process under state law for challenging a land use action by local government which is claimed to take property.

Under the California Supreme Court’s decision in Hensler v. City of Glendale, 876 P.2d…

Third time around for Lost Tree’s takings case against the federal government on this blog.

The first was the Federal Circuit’s decision concluding that a single Florida parcel owned by the plaintiff was the relevant parcel against which the impact of the Corps of Engineers’ denial of a § 404 wetlands dredge and fill permit is…

Last week, the Hawaii Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Sierra Club v. Castle and Cooke Homes Hawaii, Inc., No. SCAP-13-0000765, a case involving a challenge by the usual suspects to a State Land Use  Commission “boundary amendment” (aka state “rezoning” to those of you not familiar with Hawaii’s top-heavy state land use planning…

The powers-that-be planned on building a major freeway interchange, part of which was going to be on the property owned by Jefferson Street Ventures. Problem was, Jefferson Street also had plans for its property — a shopping center — and when it came time for it to apply to the City of Indio for permits…

Here’s the latest from the Hawaii Supreme Court on the joinder of parties under Rule 19, where there’s a claim that an absent party is “indispensable” and thus the case should be dismissed. Bottom line is that an absentee should be joined if its presence is needed, and the “indispensable” determination only needs to be…

In 2011, Missouri adopted a statute that looks to us like a slightly modified “right to farm” law:

The statute supplants the common law of private nuisance in actions in which the “alleged nuisance emanates from property primarily used for crop or animal production purposes.” Unlike a common law private nuisance action, section…

Last week, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in California Building Industry Assn. v. City of San Jose, No. S212072, the case which challenges San Jose’s “inclusionary housing” requirement.

The Court of Appeal held that under rational basis review (and not heightend scrutiny) San Jose’s affordable housing exaction might survive because it was…

Williamson County gives everyone grief, and if you needed any more proof, here it is.  

In A Forever Recovery, Inc. v. Township of Pennfield, No. 13-2657 (Apr. 2, 2015), an unpublished opinion from the Sixth Circuit, the court upheld the district court’s award of attorneys’ fees and costs to a property owner who…