Here's the property owners' brief in opposition to the DOT's request for the North Carolina Supreme Court to review the court of appeals' opinion in Kirby v. N.C. Dep't of Transportation, No. OA14-184 (Feb. 17, 2015).
The court concluded that the Map Act -- which gives the DOT the ability to designate hundreds of parcels for future highway use and prevent their development in the meantime for the avowed purpose of keeping the future acquisition price low -- effected a taking. The court remanded the case for a calculation of the compensation owed to each property owner.
The DOT's brief argues the Map Act is just a police power regulation, and to force it to actually buy the properties now would make it, you know, just too expensive to build highways. The property owners' brief responds:
While the NCDOT certainly has police powers to regulate its right of way (medians, traffic lights, access points, driveway cuts), it must first acquire that right of way to do so. The Court of Appeals concluded that NCDOT took fundamental property rights of owners merely to lower acquisition costs when condemnation finally occurred. This public benefit of better prices is an act of eminent domain mandating just compensation.
Br. at 15.
We'll have more on this case when the N.C. Supreme Court decides whether to hear it.
