Real Estate & Property Law

Well, What Do You Know: Condemnees Have Due Process Rights!

Posted on March 24, 2008
In a series of decisions that in any context but eminent domain would be unsurprising, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, held that a property owner whose land is targeted for involuntary acquisition is entitled to be told about...

Florida Court Invalidates Short Term Rental Restrictions

Posted on March 21, 2008
According to this report, a Florida state court has invalidated a municipality's attempt to regulate short-term rentals: Milo [the property owner] bought more than a dozen homes on or near the island beginning in 2005 and started renting them out...

New Article: Property Rights in the Ninth Circuit, And Beyond

Posted on March 21, 2008
The Federalist Society has posted a new edition of Engage - The Journal of Federalist Society Practice Groups, a newsletter-format publication with short scholarly articles on topics such as Administrative Law, Environmental Law and Property Rights, and Civil Rights, among...

Order in Florida Short Term Rental Case

Posted on March 21, 2008
Here's the written order (1.8mb pdf) in Milo v. City of Venice, Case No. 2008 CA 552 SC (Mar. 17, 2008), the Florida case invalidating a municipality's restrictions on short term rentals that I posted earlier. The case arose after...

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Missouri Supreme Court: Both Large and Small Cities May Use Eminent Domain for Redevelopment

Posted on March 19, 2008
Disappointing news out of the Missouri Supreme Court. In City of Arnold v. Tourkakis, No. SC88647 (Mar. 18, 2008), the court held that both chartered and non-chartered Missouri cities have the power to use eminent domain to take property for...

Epstein Blogs His New Takings Book

Posted on March 19, 2008
In a post at PrawfsBlawg, "Takings, a Second Time," University of Chicago Law Professor Richard Epstein discusses his new book Supreme Neglect: How to Revive the Constitutional Protection for Private Property, a follow-up to Takings: Private Property and the Power...

Land Use Seminar - April 3, 2008

Posted on March 17, 2008
On April 3, 2008, I will be on the faculty of "Practical Guide to Zoning and Land Use Law" in Honolulu. I'll be presenting two subjects, "Current Caselaw and Legislative Update," and "Appealing an Administrative Zoning Decision. Also on the...

6th Circuit: We Have No Jurisdiction, But We Rule Against The Property Owner Anyway

Posted on March 14, 2008
If you picked up and read a copy of Braun v. Ann Arbor Charter Township, No. 07-1370 (Mar. 13, 2008), an opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit without having read the briefs of the parties...

9th Cir: Senior Citizens Are Not Automatically Considered "Disabled"

Posted on March 12, 2008
With a name like Carefree, Arizona, who wouldn't want to spend the golden years there? That appears to have been what was on the mind of one F.G. Budnick, a developer, when he decided he wanted to build the "Residences...

Inverse Condemnation and the Border Patrol

Posted on March 11, 2008
Here's another post involving property rights along the U.S. - Mexico border, but the issue is somewhat different than last week's US v. 1.04 Acres case. The issue this time is not the border fence, and it's not about an...

9th Cir: Due Process "Hassle"

Posted on March 11, 2008
How often do you see a published opinion from a federal court of appeals that uses the word "hassle" to describe needless litigation? Well, thanks to the irrepressible Chief Judge Kozinski, we now have citeworthy precedent from Clement v. City...

Eminent Domain and the Border Fence

Posted on March 09, 2008
What does a fence along the U.S. - Mexico border to deter illegal crossings have to do with eminent domain law? Well, when the government is condemning property for the fence, a lot. When it decided to put up a...

Associated Press: "Hawaii: Tourists Make Lousy Neighbors"

Posted on March 08, 2008
In a story titled "Hawaii: Tourists Make Lousy Neighbors," the Associated Press summarizes the "transient vacation rental" issue that's been making waves on Oahu, Maui, and Kauai. Only one county, the Big Island of Hawaii, does not actively regulate vacation...

NIMBYs, BANANAs, CAVEs and DUDEs

Posted on March 07, 2008
Jesse Souki's post on his Hawaii Land Use Law blog, "NIMBY Group Stymies 700 Home Affordable Housing Project on Maui," about a state-court challenge to a housing project, brings up a topic that is fun to revisit every now and...

Legal Challenge to Sedona, Arizona Short-Term Rental Bar

Posted on March 06, 2008
As reported here, a lawsuit was filed in Arizona state courts seeking to invalidate Sedona, Arizona's prohibition on short-term rentals (less than 30 days): Approximately 450 short-term rental properties in Sedona have been impacted by the new Ordinance making it...

Cert Petition to Overrule Williamson County Denied

Posted on March 03, 2008
The US Supreme Court has denied a petition to review a Seventh Circuit opinion which dismissed a property owner's regulatory takings challenge on ripeness grounds under Williamson County Regional Planning Comm'n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172 (1985). The questions...

Nollan/Dolan in Federal Court Challenge to Maui's "Affordable Housing" Exaction Scheme

Posted on February 29, 2008
The plaintiff property owner has filed a motion for partial summary judgment in the federal court challenge to Maui County's "affordable housing" requirement. Kamaole Pointe Development LP v. County of Maui, Civ. No. CV07-00447 DAE LEK (filed Feb. 28, 2008)...

Aggressive New Kauai Shoreline Setback Ordinance Adopted

Posted on February 29, 2008
In "New Kauai shoreline erosion bill among the nation's most conservative," Jan TenBruggencate summarizes the recently enacted Kauai ordinance adopting a variable shoreline setback: Kaua'i County has adopted the most aggressive shoreline building setback law in the state, a powerful...

They're Moving Father's Grave to Build a Sewer

Posted on February 27, 2008
In "Defend the Castle!," Professor Gideon Kanner referenced a British vaudeville song by the Clancy Brothers, "They're Moving Father's Grave to Build a Sewer." He wrote: And speaking of entertaining stuff that?s related to eminent domain ? and Lord knows...

More on "The Castle"

Posted on February 26, 2008
In "Defend the Castle!" Professor Gideon Kanner adds to my recent review of "The Castle," a comedy about an Australian family's fight to preserve their home from a Kelo-esque taking. Professor Kanner clarifies the Australian condemnation law: And by the...

Land Use Round Up

Posted on February 25, 2008
Professor Ilya Somin posts "Once Blighted, Always Blighted" about how long-lasting "blight" designations are more likely to impede development, not encourage it." Charley Foster at Planet Kauai posts "Monkeypod preliminary injunction motion," his analysis of a pending motion for preliminary...

Maui Vacation Rental Ban in the News

Posted on February 23, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle posts "Maui County closes unlicensed bed and breakfasts and vacation rentals," about the background on the issue and the pending Ninth Circuit appeal. In what is becoming a divisive battle - both in court and in...

KHPR ThinkTechHawaii Interview With Justice Stephen Breyer (mp3)

Posted on February 22, 2008
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer was a guest on Jay Fidell's ThinkTechHawaii radio program yesterday. KHPR has posted the podcast of the interview here (21mb mp3). The interview begins at the 17:30 mark. Mark Murakami earlier posted a...

Movie Review: Kelo Down Under

Posted on February 22, 2008
The Kerrigan home will never make the pages of Australian House Beautiful: it sits in the flight path of the Melbourne airport, massive power lines run overhead, the back yard used to be a toxic landfill, and the owner has...

Links From Today's Seminar

Posted on February 21, 2008
Thank you to all those who attended today's Advanced Land Use Seminar. Here are the links to the cases I discussed. Also, for anyone who wants the Powerpoint presentation from the first session, email me. Wilkie v. Robbins - no...

Court of Federal Claims: Commercial Fishing License Not "Property"

Posted on February 19, 2008
In Palmyra Pacific Seafoods, L.L.C. v. United States, No 07-35L (Jan. 22, 2008), the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (the article I court that hears inverse condemnation claims against the federal government) held that federal regulations which prohibited commercial fishing...

Williamson County Cert Petition and Supporting Briefs

Posted on February 16, 2008
Mark your calendars for February 29, 2008. That's the day the US Supreme Court will decide whether to grant review to a case which calls for the overruling of Williamson County Regional Planning Comm'n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172...

Land Use Seminar: February 20, 2008

Posted on February 14, 2008
There's still time to register for the "Advanced Land Use and Zoning Law" seminar to be held on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu. Topics include vacation rentals, big box zoning, affordable housing exactions, landowner....

New Category: Williamson County / Ripeness

Posted on February 14, 2008
Admin note: I've added a new category to the post classifications: Williamson County / Ripeness. The recent Reagan case got me to thinking, and it seems that the issue is continually cropping up again after the concurring opinion of four...

Hawaii Public Radio on Transit, Land Use, and Growth (mp3)

Posted on February 14, 2008
Hawaii Public Radio has posted a three-part series of reports on "Transit and Growth in Hawaii," the third of which is the most interesting since it focuses on Honolulu's proposed $4 billion+ rail system. Each of the segments, however, is...

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