Just compensation in condemnation has long been held to require payment that is fair to both the property owner having its property seized and the public taking it. Two of the rules that have developed in this pursuit of fairness came face to face in a recent case, City of Perris v. Stamper, No. S213468, 2016 Cal. LEXIS 6749 (Cal. Aug. 15, 2016). In light of the court’s holding in Perris, property owners reviewing compensation offers may need to pay particular attention to the timing of land use plans and public project announcements applicable to their property.

In Perris, the City bisected Stamper’s vacant light-industrial zone property with a 1.66 acre acquisition to construct a road. The City offered Stamper $44,000 in compensation. Stamper demanded $1.3 million. The basis for this vast difference in valuation lay in the appraisal assumptions.

The City took the position that Stamper’s industrially zoned land should be valued as if it were agricultural. Given that developing his larger property with an industrial use would, in the City’s estimation, require as a condition of City approval that Stamper dedicate the property that the City was condemning to the City without compensation, the true value of the property was no more than its value in agricultural use. The City’s theory was consistent with the holding in another case, City of Porterville v. Young, 241 Cal. Rptr. 349 (Cal. Ct. App. 1987), that deemed the valuation approach appropriate so long as the dedication met the constitutional requirements of rough proportionality of the required dedication to the development’s impact and essential nexus of the required dedication to a valid public purpose.
Continue Reading California Supreme Court Addresses Intersection of City Right-of-Way Dedication Requirements and Project Influence in Valuing Condemned Property

As the High Speed Rail Authority (“Authority”) prepares to begin construction this week of the first segment of the High Speed Rail Project (the “Project”), the State Public Works Board is concurrently scrambling to consider resolutions of necessity to acquire property for the first segment within Fresno and Madera counties.  Because of the recent litigation

The State Public Works Board (the “Board”) adopted four Resolutions of Necessity approving the High-Speed Rail Authority’s (the “Authority”) use of eminent domain for public necessity to acquire four parcels in Fresno and Madera County for the Initial Operating Segment of the High-Speed Rail Project (the “Project”).  (Click HERE for map of Initial Operating Segment.) 

The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s (the “Authority”) first request to seize a parcel in Fresno County through eminent domain has been approved by the State Public Works Board (the “SPWB”), the state agency that oversees fiscal matters associated with construction of projects for state agencies.  The Authority made its request to the SPWB because its

The Obama Administration finally gave its formal approval to the California High-Speed Rail Authority to begin construction of the high-speed railway beginning in the Central Valley.  The approval, which came in the form of a formal “record of decision” from the Federal Railroad Administration, gives the green light to the Authority to begin acquiring hundreds