Land use law

Here’s the latest in an issue we’ve been following out of North Carolina.

In Kirby v North Carolina Dep’t of Transportation, No. COA14-184 (Feb. 17, 2015), the N.C. Court of Appeals not only held that the property owners’ claims were ripe, but that the Map Act — which gives the DOT the ability to

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Here are the links from our opening sessions this morning:

  • The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail — its roof may shake — the wind may blow through it — the storm may enter — the rain may enter — but

No, it’s not about the weird dude down at the Planning Department, but a new (draft) article by two familiar property lawprofs, Lee Fennell and Eduardo Penalver. Here’s the abstract:

How can the Constitution protect landowners from government exploitation without disabling the machinery that protects landowners from each other? The Supreme Court left this central

Land users, please read the California Court of Appeal’s opinion in Woody’s Group, Inc. v. City of Newport Beach, No.G050155 (Jan. 29, 2015), which starts off with this straightforward summary:

The language of the law is replete with synonyms for fairness: due process, equal protection, good faith, harmless error are all ways of expressing

The wheels of justice may grind slowly, but they do grind. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit granted a motion we filed back in June 2013, and permitted us to file this amicus brief on behalf of the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association in a case that is scheduled to be argued in mid-February 2015, Rancho de

The Township of Ocean, New Jersey downzoned the plaintiffs’ residentially-and-commercially-zoned land to “Environmental Conservation.” The EC district allows “only very low density residential development or other low intensity uses,” with a minimum lot size of 20 acres. 

The plaintiffs, who own 34 acres subject the EC zoning, challenged the zoning ordinance, asserting it was “arbitrary, unreasonable

Last we checked in with the Bridge Aina Lea case, the Ninth Circuit said it would hold off on a decision until the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in the associated state court litigation (see 9th Cir Says “Let’s Wait” On Hawaii Supreme Court To Rule In Bridge Aina Lea).

This is the federal court

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following, the property owner’s cert petition, filed last week, in which a U.S. District Court invalidated a Florida county’s “Right of Way Preservation Ordinance” which allows it to land bank for a future road corridors by means of an exaction. The court concluded the ordinance

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This could be your view, winging your way to San Francisco in a couple of weeks, to join us for the 2015 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference (and the concurrent Condemnation 101 program), at the Hotel Nikko, February 5-7, 2015. 

There’s still a few spaces left, and time to register. We’re the