Eminent Domain Report

Anyone who's ever been involved in real estate development knows that as part of the permit approval process, developers are routinely required to make concessions to the government in order to move forward with proposed development plans.  And, if you're building near the coast, you usually need to jump through even more hoops (sometimes backwards and through fire) to please the Coastal Commission.  But when do the demanded concessions go too far?

We've covered in the past the "rough proportionality" and "nexus" requirements that development conditions must ...

The heavy-weight boxing match continues:  after California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed an "informal" opposition, the California Redevelopment Association (CRA) has countered with a not-so-"informal" reply brief of its own in an effort to overturn AB1X 26 and AB1X 27.

The CRA's informal reply requests oral argument in the Fall of 2011 since no one seems to dispute the urgent need for the California Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of the recently passed legislation.  The CRA then focuses on the Attorney General's request to consider the statutes ...

Want to know what's going on with some of Southern California's largest infrastructure projects?  Here's a quick update.

• I-5 Corridor Improvements:  If you live in California, you've almost certainly spent many hours on the 5 freeway.  It runs from the US/Mexico border all the way through Oregon and even up into Canada.  With Southern California's population growth, Caltrans has invested over $3 billion to improve two areas of the I-5 over the next five years:  (i) the segment between the Orange County line and the San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605); and (ii) the segment between the ...

As originally reported by Robert Thomas at inversecondemnation.com, a petition for certiorari was filed asking the U.S. Supreme Court to address "[w]hat category of takings are subject to heightened judicial scrutiny, and when is the risk of undetected favoritism so acute that an exercise of eminent domain can be presumed invalid?"  While Justice Kennedy brought this issue to the national stage when he raised the possibility of such conduct in a recent concurrence, as of today, and likely tomorrow, the question remains unanswered. 

In Kelo v. City of New ...

The battle continues over redevelopment in California.  Yesterday, the Attorney General filed an "Informal Opposition to Petition for Writ of Mandate."  The document is 20 pages long, with a 4-page list of Legal Authorities, so it really isn't very "informal"; still, that's what she called it.

Not surprisingly, Attorney General Kamala Harris takes the positions that:

1. AB1X 26 and AB1X 27 are constitutional, and
2. The CRA has not justified a stay in their enforcement. 

The Attorney General does not challenge the CRA's decision to file its lawsuit directly in the California Supreme ...

While Governor Brown's push to eliminate redevelopment agencies seemed to drag on forever, California's redevelopment agencies were not so slow to act once the long-contemplated ABX1 26 and ABX1 27 became law.  On Monday, the redevelopment agencies filed suit directly in the California Supreme Court seeking to overturn the recent enactments.

The redevelopment agencies are represented by the California Redevelopment Association and the League of California Cities.  San Jose and Union City also joined in the lawsuit claiming they will face elimination since they cannot make the ...

When dealing with regulatory takings claims, we've covered in the past the maze of procedural landmines that await a property owner.  We've once gone so far as to describe it as resembling "Alice's trip through Wonderland, with the parties falling in and out of state and then federal court (instead of a rabbit hole) based on procedural and substantive rules that often seem as logical as the Mad Hatter's recitals at the Tea Party."  Could one of those major obstacles disappear, allowing land owners a more direct shot at a regulatory takings claim in federal court?  The US Supreme Court could ...

For months, we've been reporting on the impending death of California's redevelopment agencies.  Even we had started to feel like the "boy who cried wolf" as we reported on iterations of the Governor's budget plan that didn't come to fruition. 

But this time, it's real.  Along with an overall budget package, this week the Governor signed into law ABX1 26 and ABX1 27.  ABX1 26 eliminates redevelopment agencies in California.  ABX1 27 provides a means of survival if the agencies will pay the state, collectively, $1.7 billion next year (the savings the Governor claims ABX1 26 would generate by ...

When last we posted on the topic (see Days that Make Being an Eminent Domain Attorney Exciting: More Redevelopment Developments), the bills that would end redevelopment in California as we know it, AB 26x and AB 27x, had been passed by both the Assembly and Senate, but were left hanging when the Governor vetoed the main budget bills.  It was unclear what life, if any, these budget trailer bills had absent a budget.  The Legislature therefore simply held them without forwarding them to the Governor for his signature.  They have remained in a state of procedural and legal limbo for ...

It's not often we go an entire week without a blog post, but last week was a bit hectic on our end.  Here's a few California eminent domain and infrastructure updates from throughout the week:

• San Bernardino Eminent Domain:  In its article "IVDA approves eminent domain for Tippecanoe widening," The Riverside Press-Enterprise is reporting that the Inland Valley Development Agency has authorized moving forward with eminent domain to acquire 461 square feet of property in San Bernardino near the north east corner of Tippecanoe and Central Avenue as part of a street widening effort ...