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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>TO ALL PROPERTY RIGHTS SUPPORTERS,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights wishes to congratulate Pacific Legal Foundation for an impressive property rights win before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. CAPR also thanks property owner Coy Koontz for having the courage to see this through, which is no small achievement! PLF used the same “nexus” and “proportionality” arguments in “Koontz” that were used to win in CAPR v. Sims against King County, WA. Note also that PLF Northwest Center principle attorney Brian Hodges, who represented CAPR in CAPR v. Sims was also co-counsel in “Koontz”! Brian tells us that he remains committed to putting a similar case before the Washington Supreme Court. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Read more below.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>ONWARD!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/us-usa-court-property-idUSBRE95O0XM20130625">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/us-usa-court-property-idUSBRE95O0XM20130625</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Supreme Court rule for Florida property owner in land use case</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#666666'>WASHINGTON</span></b><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#666666'> | Tue Jun 25, 2013 11:39am EDT <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for advocates of private property rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said a Florida property owner may be owed compensation from a government agency that declined to award him a development permit for his land.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In a 5-4 ruling with the court's five conservative justices in the majority, the court said Coy Koontz could pursue a property rights claim against the St. Johns River Water Management District.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The legal issue was whether the agency's action constituted a "taking" subject to compensation, under the so-called takings clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said a government may not condition a land-use permit on an owner giving up the use of some property absent a "nexus" and "rough proportionality" between the demand and the effect of the proposed land use. He said this applied even if the permit were denied, and the demand was for money.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"So long as the building permit is more valuable than any just compensation the owner could hope to receive for the right-of-way, the owner is likely to accede to the government's demand, no matter how unreasonable," Alito wrote. "Extortionate demands of this sort frustrate the Fifth Amendment right to just compensation, and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine prohibits them."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Joining Alito's opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The decision was the culmination of a more than 18-year battle by Koontz and his late father over the development of their nearly 15-acre (six-hectare) parcel of land.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>After Florida designated much of the parcel as protected wetlands, Koontz proposed to develop about a quarter of it and dedicate the rest for conservation, only to have local officials insist that he pay money to protect wetlands elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Koontz said no, and a trial court awarded him $327,500 for being unable to use his property. Florida's Supreme Court then threw this award out, saying that because St. Johns never issued a permit and Koontz never spent money, "nothing was ever taken."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Justice Elena Kagan dissented from Tuesday's decision, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Kagan said the majority "threatens to subject a vast array of land-use regulations, applied daily in states and localities throughout the country, to heightened constitutional scrutiny. I would not embark on so unwise an adventure."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The case was sent back to Florida courts for further proceedings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The case is Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 1447.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Will Dunham)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>