Real Estate & Property Law

2008 Land Use In Review

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

Yet another year has come and gone -- our third at this blog, -- so it's time to start off our annual summary of the past year's highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view) in land use law and other topics covered on inversecondemnation.com.

It was mostly a year of incremental doctrinal shifts, with a couple of sea changes thrown in for excitement: the Ninth Circuit finally ditched Armendariz and recognized the validity of substantive due process in land use cases; the Hawaii Supreme Court came out strongly in favor of property owner's rights in eminent domain proceedings, holding that courts should not simply take the government's word that a taking is for public use, and requiring the government to bear the economic burden when its attempts to take property fail; the Hawaii intermediate appellate court held that there is no private right of action under the state land use laws.

It was also a year in which certain issues kept coming back: Williamson County ripeness (the trending on this case will continue, as it dawns on more and more courts -- and maybe perhaps the Supremes sometime soon -- what that decision is all about), and state courts around the country struck out on their own on the takings-for-economic-development issue.

Hot topics in Hawaii: the impending condemnations for Honolulu's multi-billion rail project which was approved by voters in November; the continuing issue of "vacation rentals," the upcoming "ceded lands" decision by the U.S. Supreme Court; and the seemingly perpetual Hawaii Superferry litigation. Yet, for all the heat generated in the media about these topics, there was very little actual movement in the law.  Maybe 2009 will provide that.  

So stay tuned over the next few days as we run down the year's issues.

If you think we missed any key cases or events, please send an email, or suggest a topic yourself in a comment.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on January 01, 2009 (boomark / email).