The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in George Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, agreeing to answer the question of whether legislatively enacted development impact fees are subject to a lower level of constitutional...more
10/9/2023
/ Ad-Hoc Mandates ,
Building Permits ,
Certiorari ,
Construction Project ,
Eminent Domain ,
George Sheetz v County of El Dorado ,
Impact Fees ,
Infrastructure ,
Real Estate Development ,
SCOTUS ,
Traffic Impact Assessments
In Knick v. Township of Scott, 139 S.Ct. 2162 (2019), the Supreme Court reversed over three decades of precedent when it eliminated the requirement that a plaintiff exhaust state court remedies before pursuing a takings...more
Sea level rise is a critical issue facing public agencies and property owners throughout the United States. In California alone, this phenomenon could impact thousands of residences and businesses, dozens of wastewater...more
If you know someone with property that borders, is adjacent to, or abuts a natural lake, pond, bay, sea, or ocean, they may have littoral property rights. What that means is they may have the right to build a pier out to the...more
9/11/2020
/ Adjacent Property Owners ,
Construction Project ,
Eminent Domain ,
Environmental Policies ,
Navigable Waters ,
Permits ,
Property Owners ,
Public Access Laws ,
Real Estate Development ,
Urban Planning & Development ,
Waterfront Properties
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic a number of local jurisdictions throughout the country adopted ordinances freezing rents and prohibiting or limiting evictions. Not surprisingly, some landlords were not particularly...more
8/10/2020
/ Contracts Clau ,
Contracts Clause ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Due Process ,
Eminent Domain ,
Eviction ,
Executive Orders ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Landlords ,
Local Ordinance ,
Petition for Writ of Mandate ,
Regulatory Takings ,
Rental Property ,
State Constitutions ,
Tenants
As you may recall, it wasn’t too long after the Governor issued his executive order mandating the closure of certain businesses in California that the first takings lawsuit was filed. (See our coverage of Gondola Adventures,...more
Yes, but the sea might beat them to it. In 2015, the California Coastal Commission adopted the Sea Level Rise Policy Guidance. This Guidance document discusses a number of potential measures for responding to sea level rise,...more
3/4/2020
/ Beachfront Properties ,
California Coastal Commission ,
Coastal Real Estate ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Eminent Domain ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Property Owners ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Real Estate Development ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Takings ,
Rising Sea Levels
Last week, Jeremy Jacobs posted an interesting article about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Horne v. Dep’t of Agriculture, No. 14-275 (U.S. Jun. 22, 2015), and its potential application to Endangered Species Act...more
The question now is, is the court’s statement merely a bump in the road or a roadblock? The United States filed the eminent domain action seeking to condemn certain access rights so it could increase its profitability when...more
Just in case you lost track of the Martins Beach saga, here is a quick summary and update. According to reports, a couple of years after billionaire Vinod Khosla bought beachfront property in San Mateo County for over $30...more
When a public agency seeks to impose a land exaction on a planned development, the analysis of whether the proposed dedication meets the necessary "essential nexus" and "rough proportionality" tests is often cumbersome and...more
When a public agency seeks to impose a land exaction on a planned development, the analysis of whether the proposed dedication meets the necessary "essential nexus" and "rough proportionality" tests is often cumbersome and...more
In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U.S. 172, a landmark decision (as Supreme Court decisions often are) that drastically slashed the...more
The House of Representatives has once again resurrected the "Private Property Rights Protection Act" (HR 1944), a bill that would limit the power of eminent domain on a nationwide scale. I say once again, because as we...more
An eminent decision out of the Ninth Circuit United States Court of Appeals is not a common occurrence. A Ninth Circuit eminent domain decision dealing with intangible property is even less common. Yet, on April 26, 2013,...more
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
Earlier this week, in an unpublished decision (pdf), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of compensation for construction that altered a point of access to an existing business. (Wardany v. City of San Jacinto (9th Cir....more
Originally Published in The Real Estate Finance Journal, December 17, 2012.
In eminent domain proceedings, property owners are granted the right to have a jury determine just compensation. But the presentation of...more
California is one of only a few states in which a business may recover for loss of goodwill when property is taken by eminent domain, but even here there are limitations on a business' right to recover for such damages. ...more
When I was a child, a long long time ago, I learned the importance of paying attention to detail. While I will not bore you with the details of my adolescence and the shenanigans that forced my parents to drive home this...more
On August 30, 2012, the Second Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal held that a privately owned utility could be subject to strict liability for inverse condemnation, thereby concurring with a similar holding...more