Zoning & Planning

In Kirby v North Carolina Dep’t of Transportation, No. COA14-184 (Feb. 17, 2015), the North Carolina held that state’s “Map Act,” which gives the DOT the ability to designate property for future highway use and prevent its development in the meantime, was a taking. There was great shouting and gnashing of teeth that making…

Brost v. City of Santa Barbara, No. B246153 (Mar. 25, 2015) is an unpublished opinion, but (1) we hope the property owners ask the court to publish it, and (2) even if it remains unpublished, it is worth reading, because the court correctly applies both Williamson County‘s futility exception, and the “background principles” …

A couple of noteworthy conferences upcoming, one in-person, the other a “webinar” format:

  • The first is “Kelo: A Decade Later” at the U. Connecticut Law School, Friday, March 20, 2015, from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm. The conference promises to “look back at the decision and its repercussions,” and includes the lawyers for

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Frequent readers know that we just love the Australian comedy film “The Castle,” which tells the tale of one man’s legal fight to save his family’s home from the abusive exercise of eminent domain power. (See “Kelo Down Under,” our review.) The case is played for laughs and in the…

Check out State ex rel. Sunset Estate Properties, LLC v. Village of Lodi, No. 2013-1856 (Mar. 10, 2015),  a case in which the Ohio Supreme Court held that a local zoning ordinance was unconstitutional on its face.

The Village’s zoning code, adopted in 1987, banned manufactured home (trailer) parks. Of course, the ordinance could…

Worth reading: “Legislative Exactions after Koontz v. St. Johns River Management District,” an article by colleagues Luke Wake and Jarod Bona, recently posted to SSRN. Here’s the abstract:

Decided in June, 2013, Koontz v. St. Johns River Management District settled a long-running debate among scholars as to whether the nexus test &mdash…

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 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…