Alexander v. Town of Jupiter

640 So. 2d 79, 1994 WL 178068
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 3, 1994
Docket92-1772
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 640 So. 2d 79 (Alexander v. Town of Jupiter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alexander v. Town of Jupiter, 640 So. 2d 79, 1994 WL 178068 (Fla. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

640 So.2d 79 (1994)

Michelle ALEXANDER, as Trustee, Appellant,
v.
TOWN OF JUPITER, a municipal corporation, Appellee.

No. 92-1772.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

May 11, 1994.
Order Granting in Part Clarification or Rehearing as to Order Awarding Provisional, but Otherwise Denying Rehearing August 3, 1994.

John Beranek of Aurell Radey Hinkle Thomas & Beranek, Tallahassee, and Fred *80 H. Gelston of Damsel & Gelston, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Thomas J. Baird of Thomas J. Baird, P.A., Palm Beach Gardens, for appellee.

Order Granting in Part Clarification or Rehearing as to Order Awarding Provisional Attorney Fees, but Otherwise Denying Rehearing August 3, 1994.

WARNER, Judge.

We are presented with the question of whether the "ripeness doctrine" precludes consideration of appellant's inverse condemnation claim of a temporary taking of her property through the denial of all use of the property by the Town of Jupiter pending the resolution of an inconsistency between the Town's comprehensive plan and its zoning regulations. The trial court held that it did. However, based on First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. County of Los Angeles, 482 U.S. 304, 107 S.Ct. 2378, 96 L.Ed.2d 250 (1987),[1] we hold that the claim was ripe for adjudication and therefore reverse.

This case concerns two parcels of property located in the Town of Jupiter. Of primary concern to this appeal is an 11 acre island in the intracoastal waterway known as Fullerton Island. Appellant's interest in the properties arose from her pending real estate contract to purchase the property from the owner.

In 1979, Jupiter adopted a comprehensive land use plan which designated Fullerton Island as a conservation land use. Although section 163.3194, Florida Statutes (1979), required that after the adoption of a comprehensive plan all development and land use regulations must be in conformity with the plan, Jupiter's zoning ordinance did not include any provision for development within a conservation district. As early as 1984, the property was identified by Jupiter as one where the zoning would have to be changed in order to comply with the comprehensive plan. However, no corrective zoning was implemented.

In June 1988, appellant contracted with the owners of Fullerton Island to purchase the property.[2] Appellant intended to develop the island with single family homes. That same month, appellant applied to Jupiter for a clearing permit to remove trees from the island so that a survey could be conducted. The town officials denied the permit and told appellant that a clearing permit could not issue because of the inconsistency between the island's residential zoning and the conservation land use designation. In July 1988 the town's director of public services returned the permit application, informing appellant that "I [the town official] am unable to issue any permit of any type on the subject property" due to the inconsistency of the plan and the zoning ordinances.

To make a long history short, for the next two years appellant submitted several applications for developmental permits on the property, for rezoning, and for land use plan amendments, all of which were denied. The town opted instead to develop its own conservation zoning district ordinances, a task to which it set itself nearly nine years after the adoption of the comprehensive plan. Ultimately, conservation ordinances were adopted, and appellant and the town finally executed a development agreement and then a site plan on November 8, 1990.

After receiving her approvals, appellant filed suit for, among other things, inverse condemnation. The trial focused on the inverse condemnation cause of action. Appellant claimed that a temporary taking occurred from July 1988, the time that her first land clearing permit was denied and she was told that no permits would be issued, to the date of the final approval of her site plan.

There were a multitude of issues presented to the trial court, but the judge ruled on just one. He found that the "ripeness doctrine" precluded appellant's action because Jupiter *81 did not reach its "final decision" on the application of the zoning ordinances to the property when it denied all permits in July 1988. Since the zoning/plan inconsistency was not resolved until 1990, there was no final determination of the uses to which the property could be put until that time. The court cited Williamson County Regional Planning Comm'n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172, 191-94, 105 S.Ct. 3108, 3119-20, 87 L.Ed.2d 126 (1985), and MacDonald, Sommer & Frates v. Yolo County, 477 U.S. 340, 348, 106 S.Ct. 2561, 2566, 91 L.Ed.2d 285 (1986). Noting that Florida has adopted this Federal ripeness doctrine, see Glisson v. Alachua County, 558 So.2d 1030 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), the court determined that as Jupiter had not reached a "final decision" on the property on July 22, 1988, when it denied Plaintiff's request for a permit, the takings claim was not ripe for adjudication.

The trial court's reasoning would be very appropriate if by this action appellant had claimed a permanent taking. In fact, all of the cases cited in the final judgment deal with permanent taking claims. However, in this case the pleadings clearly requested compensation for a temporary taking. We analyze the ripeness issue in that light.

Government interference with the use of land is circumscribed by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which provides that "private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation." The Fifth Amendment applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Chicago B. & Q.R. Co. v. City of Chicago, 166 U.S. 226, 17 S.Ct. 581, 41 L.Ed. 979 (1897). Florida also has a similar provision. See Art. X, Sec. 6(a), Fla. Const.

In Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 43 S.Ct. 158, 67 L.Ed. 322 (1922), Justice Holmes observed that "the general rule at least is, that while property may be regulated to a certain extent, if regulation goes too far it will be recognized as a taking." Id. at 415, 43 S.Ct. at 160. While governmental regulatory restrictions arise from the exercise of the police power for the benefit of the public welfare, they amount to a constitutional taking of property "when that interference deprives the owner of substantial economic use of his or her property." Joint Ventures, Inc. v. Department of Transportation, 563 So.2d 622, 625 (Fla. 1990). In deciding whether a regulatory permit denial constitutes a taking, the United States Supreme Court has said, "Only when a permit is denied and the effect of the denial is to prevent `economically viable' use of the land in question can it be said that a taking has occurred." United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc., 474 U.S. 121, 127, 106 S.Ct. 455, 459, 88 L.Ed.2d 419 (1985).

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Town of Jupiter v. Alexander
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641 So. 2d 523 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)

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Bluebook (online)
640 So. 2d 79, 1994 WL 178068, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alexander-v-town-of-jupiter-fladistctapp-1994.