Zoning, Planning & Land Use › Civil Procedure › Constitutional Law

Temporary Regulatory Takings Do Exist in California!

Given the maze of procedural and substantive hurdles involved, property owners rarely succeed with regulatory takings claims. Even when owners do win, it is yet more uncommon for courts to award damages, instead allowing the...more

Court Upholds Zoning Ordinance That Restricts Location Of Medical Marijuana Collectives And Cooperatives

An owner of a medical marijuana collective challenged a county zoning ordinance that restricts the location of medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives to commercial and manufacturing zones. The court of appeals...more

First District Holds CEQA Remedies Provision Allows Park District’s Eminent Domain Action To Proceed Pending Preparation of...

In Golden Gate Land Holdings LLC v. East Bay Regional Park District (4/12/13 1st Dist., Div. 5) _____ Cal.App.4th _____, 2013 WL 1491547, the First District Court of Appeal explored the scope and proper application of CEQA’s...more

City May Not Use “Anti-SLAPP” Motion to Dismiss Claim That City Employee Falsely Told Potential Tenants That Property Owner Was...

Property owners often bristle at statements that local government staff make to prospective tenants or purchasers of their property, concerned that they will be scared away by overly harsh or inaccurate speech. When those...more

Regulatory Takings: Monks v. Rancho Palos Verdes Revisited (Again)

For those of you who have followed Nossaman's blog since the very early days, you'll recall our coverage of a significant regulatory takings case, Monks v. City of Rancho Palos Verdes. The 2008 California decision received...more

Weekly Law Resume - March 21, 2013: Ninth Circuit Holds that Jurisdiction Exists as to Homeless Individuals’ Eighth Amendment...

Bell, et al. v. City of Boise, et al. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit March 7, 2013 Plaintiffs in this case are seven individuals who either are or have been homeless in Boise. They have all...more

Appellate Notes: Week of March 18, 2013

In This Issue: - SC18921- Redding Life Care, Inc. v. Redding - SC18846- Bauer v. Bauer - SC18947- State v. Charlotte Hungerford Hospital - AC34075- Carrillo v. Goldberg - AC33764- Alarmax...more

DISPUTE RESOLUTION: Business Litigation Important Texas Water Rights Case Could Affect Oil & Gas Activities as Well by Brannon...

The Texas Supreme Court recently issued an important decision on a groundwater rights question that had gone unanswered for more than a century. In Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Day, the Court held that Texas property owners...more

Federal Court Extends Federal Jurisdiction to Métis and Non-Status Indians: No Impact to Resource Developers

A recent Federal Court decision clarifies and extends federal jurisdiction to Métis and non-status Indians. This ruling is significant because there could be broad financial and policy implications for the federal government....more

Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Clean Water Act Case

The Supreme Court had oral arguments last Monday (December 3) in Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, just after EPA the previous Friday (November 30) surprisingly issued a new rule clarifying that a NPDES permit...more

U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments Set In Koontz v St John's River Water Management District for January 15, 2013

One month from now, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Case No. 11-1447, styled Coy A. Koontz, Jr., Petitioner v. St. Johns River Water Management District, Respondent (read the docket here). We've...more

Alberta Court of Appeal Decides Panel Not Required to Determine Adequacy of Crown’s Aboriginal Consultation

On November 26, 2012, the Alberta Court of Appeal released the decision of Justice Slatter denying leave to appeal a decision made by the Joint Review Panel (the Panel) established to evaluate Shell Canada’s application to...more

How Far Can Government Go When it Comes to Permit Conditions?

The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case brought by a property owner who challenged permit conditions imposed by the St. Johns River Water Management District for permits to develop a portion of the...more

MassDEP Issues Its Decision on the Palmer Bio-mass Facility: Right on the Merits, Wrong on Standing

I finally had an opportunity to review the recent Final Decision in In the Matter of Palmer Renewable Energy, concerning the proposed Palmer biomass facility. Last week, MassDEP Commissioner Ken Kimmell affirmed the...more

Ninth Circuit Dismisses Challenge to Injunction in Delta Smelt Case

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted a motion by appellees to dismiss an appeal pursued by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations from an interim order enjoining one...more

Major Provisions of Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Act Deemed Unconstitutional

Commonwealth Court rules on amendments limiting municipal zoning authority. On July 26, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that 2012 amendments to Pennsylvania's Oil and Gas Act (Act 13) that preempt local...more

Preemptive Zoning Provisions of Act 13 Held Unconstitutional

Yesterday, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania issued an order declaring null and void sections of the new 2012 Oil and Gas Act ("Act 13"), which preempted local zoning ordinances that regulate oil and gas operations and...more

Supreme Court to Hear Two Significant Clean Water Cases

The Supreme Court has agreed to review two Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Clean Water Act (“CWA”) cases. Both cases involve the extent to which certain releases are properly categorized as point source discharges and must...more

Federal Government's Eminent Domain Power Trumps California's Sovereign Public Trust Title

The United States condemned tide and submerged lands leased by the Port of San Diego to the U.S. Navy. The Port held the lands under a trust grant from the State of California, and therefore defending the state’s sovereign...more

Massachusetts Federal Court Upholds Local Foreclosure Laws

On July 3, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed several banks’ challenge to a Massachusetts city’s foreclosure-related ordinances. Easthampton Savings Bank v. City of Springfield, No. 11-30280,...more

UPDATE: U.S. Court Of Appeals Upholds Dismissal Of Lawsuit Challenging County Gun Ordinance

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently upheld the dismissal of a gun show promoter’s claim against a county that banned firearms on county property. The court found the gun show promoter could not...more

JWJ Industries, Inc. v. Oswego County

Decision Granting TRO and Preliminary Injunction against County Flow Control Law

The United States District Court in Syracuse has issued a preliminary injunction against Oswego County to prohibit it from enforcing the 2011 Flow Control Law against JWJ Industries, Inc. and Jeff Holbook. The Court...more

Are Florida Right of Way Corridor Preservation Ordinances Unconstitutional? Land Owner Wins First Round in Federal Fight

In Florida land development, how traffic moves through an area is important - and years in advance of any roadway being constructed, there are land planners who work hard to determine where roads (highways, streets, etc.) are...more

Marzulla Law Legal Report - February 2012

In This Newsletter: - Marzulla Law Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Standing of Municipal Taxpayers In February 2009, Highway J Citizens Group, U.A., an associationin southeastern Wisconsin that promotes...more

Wisconsin group petitions high court for certiorari

Article originally published in the WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL - Monday, February 6, 2012. A Wisconsin-based citizens group is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case challenging the annexation of a business...more