Earlier, we posted the cert petition in Hillcrest Property, LLP v. Pasco County, No. 12-846 (cert. petition filed Jan. 15, 2015), which asks the Supreme Court to review the Eleventh Circuit’s decision throwing out Hillcrest’s facial substantive due process challenge to the county’s “Right of Way Preservation Ordinance.” The ordinance allows the county to land bank for future road corridors by means of an exaction that doesn’t come anywhere near to passing muster under NollanDolanKoontz

Although the District Court held the ordinance unconstitutional and is “both coercive and confiscatory in nature and constitutionally offensive in both content and operation,” the Eleventh Circuit concluded that the mere enactment of the ordinance started the four-year statute of limitations clock running on a facial challenge, and that Hillcrest had waited too long to file its complaint. 

Hillcrest’s petition asks whether a facial claim is even subject to the statute

Continue Reading On Facial Challenges, Exactions, Standing, And Statutes Of Limitations: Final Cert Briefs In SCOTUS Substantive Due Process Case

It’s not often that we say a law review article is a “must-read.” But this one definitely is, especially for all you regulatory takings mavens: David L. Callies, Through a Glass Clearly: Predicting the Future in Land Use Takings Law, 54 Washburn L. Rev. 43 (2014). A pdf of the article is posted here

From the Introduction:

The subject of takings—the government taking of an interest in real property, either through eminent domain or through the exercise of the police power—has been the subject of continuous litigation for nearly a century. The past ten years have been particularly fruitful, as litigants struggle with the meaning and extent of the Fifth Amendment’s Public Use Clause and the extent to which the overzealous exercise of the police power can sufficiently deprive a landowner of rights in property so that the property has been “taken” by regulation, ever since Justice Holmes

Continue Reading New Law Review Article Worth Reading: “Through a Glass Clearly: Predicting the Future in Land Use Takings Law”

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 — first pronounced in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission — applies in review of monetary exactions. In the preceding years, the lower courts had largely resolved this question in the government’s favor — limiting Nollan to its facts, and holding the nexus test inapplicable if a challenged permit requires the applicant to pay or expend money as a condition of permit approval. Further, the trend among the lower courts held the nexus test inapplicable in review of legislatively imposed exactions, regardless of whether the contested condition requires a dedication of real property or money.

Without question

Continue Reading New Article: “Legislative Exactions after Koontz v. St. Johns River Management District”

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 question unanswered — and indeed unasked — in Koontz v St. Johns River Water Management District. The Court’s exactions jurisprudence, set forth in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, Dolan v. City of Tigard, and now Koontz, requires the government to satisfy demanding criteria for certain bargains — or proposed bargains — implicating the use of land. Yet because virtually every restriction, fee, or tax associated with the ownership or use of land can be cast as a bargain, the Court must find some way to hive off the domain of exactions

Continue Reading New Article: “Exactions Creep”

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following, the property owner’s cert petition, filed last week, in which a U.S. District Court invalidated a Florida county’s “Right of Way Preservation Ordinance” which allows it to land bank for a future road corridors by means of an exaction. The court concluded the ordinance is “both coercive and confiscatory in nature and constitutionally offensive in both content and operation,” and struck it down under Nollan/Dolan

The transportation corridor protrudes into Hillcrest’s undeveloped commercially-zoned property. Hillcrest wanted to build a shopping center and it submitted a plan to the Review Committee, which rejected the application because it did not account for the corridor. Hillcrest submitted a second plan which was rejected, and a third plan which was eventually approved, which required Hillcrest to dedicate the right of way to the county. Hillcrest reserved its right to object

Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Must A Plaintiff Challenging An Ordinance For Facial Invalidity File Suit Before Her As-Applied Claim Has Ripened?

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This could be your view, winging your way to San Francisco in a couple of weeks, to join us for the 2015 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference (and the concurrent Condemnation 101 program), at the Hotel Nikko, February 5-7, 2015. 

There’s still a few spaces left, and time to register. We’re the co-Planning Chair of the Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation program along with Joe Waldo, and we’ve assembled an exciting agenda, presented by a faculty comprised of the nation’s best-of-the-best in our field of law.

Winter in San Francisco is the one time of the year when you are likely to not be fogged in, and in addition to the 2 and a half days of programming, there are networking and social events so you can get to know your colleagues and the faculty better.

Please come and join us, if you

Continue Reading Still Time To Join Us For The 2015 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Programs In San Francisco

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Ben Kudo and David Callies, leading off

Professor Richard Epstein began the Hawaii Land Use Law Conference with the keynote presentation on “Stealth Takings: Exactions, Impact Fees, and More,” which was his usual comprehensive and non-stop takedown of takings law. 

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Our panel on Impact Fees and Exactions After Koontz followed, and here are the promised links and other materials which I mentioned:

Later today, I will also post up a recording of my short backgrounder on the exaction issue, to give you a flavor of the panel discussion (the Hawaii State Bar Assocation

Continue Reading 2015 Hawaii Land Use Law Conference

Here’s the final program and faculty list for the 2015 Hawaii Land Use Conference, coming up Thursday and Friday, January 15-16, 2015, in downtown Honolulu.

This is the bi-annual gathering of Hawaii’s land use mavens, and this year’s program has two very special presenters. Storied lawprof Richard Epstein (perhaps more than a “mere mortal”) will be presenting the keynote talk on “Stealth Takings: Exactions, Impact Fees and More,” and our ABA colleague Patty Salkin, Dean of the Touro Law School, will get us our Ethics CLE credits with her usual exciting program on ethics topics. (As someone who has attended more than few of her presentations, we can report that it is worth the price of admission alone, and even though “ethics CLE” and “exciting” are words we usually do not associate with each other, Dean Salkin’s presentation is the exception.)

Our panel on “

Continue Reading Still Time To Join Us For The 2015 Hawaii Land Use Conference (Jan. 15-16)

We bring you the latest guest post by colleague Paul Schwind, who has been tracking the issues and arguments that recently led the Hawaii Supreme Court to conclude, in DW Aina Lea Development, LLC v. Bridge Aina Lea, LLC, No. SCAP-13-0000091 (Nov. 25, 2014), that the Hawaii Land Use Commission wrongfully rescinded an earlier reclassification of land (read: “rezoning” to all you non-Hawaii land users).

The oral argument recording is posted above.

We’ll post up our thoughts on the decision in a separate post. 

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Hawaii Supreme Court In Aina Lea: The Rationales Behind The Opinion

by Paul J. Schwind*

Robert has asked me to summarize the rationales behind the holdings in the Hawaii Supreme Court’s recent opinion in DW Aina Lea Development, LLC v. Bridge Aina Lea, LLC, No. SCAP-13-0000091 (Nov. 25, 2014), which he summarized the following day, outlining the litigation history of the

Continue Reading Guest Post – Hawaii SCT In Aina Lea Case: The Rationales Behind The Opinion

2015 Hawaii Land Use Law Conference Banner - Credits

Registration is now open for the 2015 Hawaii Land Use Law Conference, to be held in downtown Honolulu on Thursday-Friday, January 15-16, 2015.

This is the bi-annual conference, co-chaired by U. Hawaii lawprof David Callies and land use lawyer Ben Kudo, that brings together the big names in our area of law. In other words, the one conference you don’t want to miss if you are a Hawaii land use or property lawyer, in-house counsel, a planner, an appraiser, a property owner or manager, or a law student interested in these topics. 

Download the full brochure here, or view it below. 

The keynote speaker this year is lawprof Richard Epstein, addressing “Stealth Takings: Exactions, Impact Fees and More.” Immediately following his talk, I will be moderating a panel on “Impact Fees and Exactions After Koontz,” with colleagues Bruce Voss and David Brittin. The rest

Continue Reading Registration Open: 2015 Hawaii Land Use Law Conference, Jan. 15-16, 2015