Last month, the Supreme Court completed its trifecta of Fifth Amendment land-use permitting decisions by issuing its opinion in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Mgmt. Dist., a decision resting firmly on the backs of the court’s earlier Nollan v California Coastal Comm’n, 438 U.S. 825 and Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374, opinions. Where Nollan and Dolan restrain a government from conditioning its approval of a land-use permit on the owner’s relinquishment of a portion of his property, unless there is a nexus and rough proportionality between the government’s demand and the effects of the proposed land use, Koontz clarifies that this same restraint applies in circumstances where a government denies a land-use permit because the applicant does not acquiesce to its demands.
Continue Reading Supreme Court Affords Landowners Protection From “The Dangers of Governmental Coercion” In Land-Use Permitting Decision