Zoning, Planning & Land Use › Constitutional Law

Canada’s Supreme Court Requires Aboriginal Groups to Follow Statutory Process

On May 9, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Behn v. Moulton Contracting Ltd., 2013 SCC 26, affirming that Aboriginal groups seeking to challenge the validity of permits or authorizations granted to...more

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

Legislation Would Limit Condemnation Awards for Beach Replenishment

Legislation Would Limit Condemnation Awards for Beach Replenishment by Patrick J. McNamara on March 19, 2013 Beach replenishment efforts are needed up and down the New Jersey shoreline in the wake of Superstorm Sandy....more

City of Imperial at an Impasse Over Transit Center

The City of Imperial has taken the first step in pursuing an eminent domain proceeding by adopting a resolution of necessity to acquire a vacant property for its Transit Center Project. As reported by the Imperial Valley...more

New Floodplain Ordinance Targets Oil and Gas Operations

The County Commission in Doddridge County, West Virginia is currently considering amendments to its Floodplain Ordinance as a result of a December 17, 2012 decision by the Circuit Court of Doddridge County. (Comments to the...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

Federal Court Holds Local Law Preempted By ESA Settlement

The Palila (Loxioides bailleui) is a small bird native to Hawaii that was listed as endangered in 1967. In 1998, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, pursuant to a stipulation submitted by the parties, issued...more

Equal Protection Claims Concerning Disparate Enforcement of Environmental Laws Remain an Uphill Battle

In 2000, in its 2-page per curiam opinion in Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, the Supreme Court gave hope to developers and property owners that the equal protection clause could be used to prevent local zoning and...more

California Environmental Law and Policy Update - April 11, 2013

Environmental and Policy Focus - ..Court rules CEQA streamlining provision unconstitutional: CourtHouse News - Apr 3 - A section of a California law aimed at streamlining construction projects by moving...more

The Alaska Constitution and Alaska Oil and Gas Projects

In the March 29th decision of Sullivan v. Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), the Supreme Court of Alaska held that the Alaska Constitution requires only one “best interest finding” (that an oil...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

Q&A With Bilzin Sumberg's Howard Nelson

Originally Published in Law360 on March 28, 2013. Howard Nelson, chairman of the environmental practice group at Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, has experience in environmental and land use law and zoning and...more

City of Tombstone v. United States

BRIEF OF THE CATO INSTITUTE, THE RIO GRANDE FOUNDATION, THE MONTANA POLICY INSTITUTE, THE IDAHO FREEDOM FOUNDATION, AND THE...

This brief addresses whether the City of Tombstone is likely to succeed on its claim that its ability to access and repair the sources of its municipal water located on federal land is not trumped by the federal government’s...more

When is a Park not a Park? The SJC Declines to Give Broad Interpretation to Article 97

Earlier this month, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued its decision in Mahajan v. DEP, holding that the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s (BRA) proposed redevelopment of Long Wharf in Boston is not subject to Article 97...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

Religious Institutions Update: March 2013

In this Issue: - Key Cases - Court Upholds Permitting, Licensing and Zoning Regulation of Spiritual Counselors - Non-Liturgical Navy Chaplains Denied Injunctive Relief for Statistical Imbalance in...more

Paper Carryout Bag Charge Is Not A Tax

Taxpayers and a manufacturer of plastic bags challenged a county ordinance that prohibits retail stores from providing customers with plastic carryout bags and requires the stores to charge their customers ten cents for each...more

Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of ESA Fifth Amendment Takings Claim

On February 27, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a Fifth Amendment takings claim based on the finding that the claim was "not ripe." The claim is unusual because it arose in...more

Two Steps Forward and Two Steps Back

Before you get your hopes up, this is not a reference to "Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul, and I will not be singing. Rather, I am referring to the Montana Legislature's recent decision to repeal a two-year-old law that...more

Rohnert Park Approves Use of Eminent Domain for Street Widening

According to an article in the Press Democrat, Rohnert Park OKs eminent domain at site of future hotel, restaurant, the Rohnert Park City Council recently adopted a resolution of necessity authorizing the use of eminent...more

Ohio Court: State Oil And Gas Law Pre-Empts Local Drilling Regulations

The nationwide oil and gas boom has exposed a rift in the relationship between state and local governments seeking to regulate shale drilling and development. This tension has been playing out in several key shale states –...more

What is RLUIPA Substantial Burden on a Church, Anyway?

When a governmental land use regulation imposes a substantial burden on churches, RLUIPA requires that the government show that it has a compelling interest and is meeting that interest in the least restrictive way. So...more