Hillcrest Property, LLP v. Pasco County

939 F. Supp. 2d 1240, 2013 WL 1502627, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53325
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedApril 12, 2013
DocketCase No. 8:10-cv-819-T-23TBM
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 939 F. Supp. 2d 1240 (Hillcrest Property, LLP v. Pasco County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hillcrest Property, LLP v. Pasco County, 939 F. Supp. 2d 1240, 2013 WL 1502627, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53325 (M.D. Fla. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

STEVEN D. MERRYDAY, District Judge.

Before 2025 Pasco County must build more and larger roads to accommodate the inevitable increase in automobile traffic. Preferring to avoid the payment of “just compensation” after acquiring the necessary land by eminent domain, Pasco County has hatched a novel and effective but constitutionally problematic idea, a most uncommon regulatory regime that is crowned by Pasco County’s “Right of Way Preservation Ordinance.”

The unremarkable part of the regime designates new “transportation corridors,” which expand certain Pasco County highways. The specific instance contested in this action designates a new transportation corridor that widens State Road 52, an arterial east-west highway in Pasco County, and identifies the boundaries of State Road 52’s future right-of-way. For most landowners, whose land is encroached by the transportation corridor but who have no plans to develop the land adjacent to the encroached land, no immediate consequence (and no constitutional jeopardy) occurs; Pasco County will take the expanded right-of-way — when needed — by eminent domain and will pay “just compensation” as determined by a jury in a Pasco County circuit court.

The remarkable part of the regime and the constitutional mischief appear in the instance of a landowner whose land is encroached by the new transportation corridor but who plans' to develop the remaining land, which adjoins the encroachment. The Ordinance requires Pasco County to deny the landowner’s development permit and to forbid development of the land adjoining the new transportation corridor unless the landowner “dedicates” (conveys in fee simple) to Pasco County — for free — the land within the new transportation corridor. In other words, to avoid the nettlesome payment of “just compensation,” the Ordinance empowers Pasco County to purposefully leverage the permitting.power to compel a landowner to dedicate land encroached by a transportation corridor. In Pasco County, if there is no free dedication, there is no permit.

As the Pasco County Attorney proudly declares, “The right of way preservation ordinance [ ] drafted and defended by this office (which is one of only a few in the state) saves the County millions of dollars each year in right of way acquisition costs, business damages and severance damages.” (Doc. 112-2 at 3) This bully result is effected by threatening to deny every proposed new use of private land, from medical clinic to beauty parlor, from restaurant to bait shop, and by coercing everyone, great and small, rich and poor, popular and unpopular, unless the landowner completes the mandatory “voluntary” dedication of real estate.

This action asks whether a county ordinance can deny the issuance of a development permit pending a landowner’s coerced conveyance to the county&wkey;for free — of the fee simple title to real estate both within a designated right-of-way and otherwise subject to eminent domain. Asserting .an array of federal and state constitutional grounds, Hillcrest challenges the Ordinance. Guarding the multimillion-dollar, past and future trove from the Ordinance, Pasco County defends.

Because the Ordinance’s modus operandi is not yet common, neither party cites legal authority directly deciding the constitutionality of an identical ordinance. Nonetheless, the features of the Ordinance are striking (and, as the Pasco County [1243]*1243Attorney confirms, startlingly effective) and constitutional examination is essential. If constitutional, the Ordinance undoubtedly will become quickly fashionable, as counties seize a singular opportunity to procure land for public use by the thrifty expedient of coerced conveyance rather than by the historically and constitutionally prescribed mechanism of eminent domain (which is, viewed from a county’s vantage, encumbered by the strictures of “due process” and “just compensation” and burdened by both the supervision of an independent judge and the informed discretion of a disinterested jury).

In a compelling report, the magistrate judge recommends finding the Ordinance unconstitutional and enjoining the Ordinance’s enforcement. Agreeing with the magistrate judge’s recommendation, this order largely adopts the report and the recommendation and adds analysis that, although viewing the law from a slightly different vantage, finds the Ordinance both coercive and confiscatory in nature and constitutionally offensive in both content and operation.

1. Background

1.1. The Ordinance

In accord with Florida’s Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land Development Regulation Act, Pasco County adopted a “comprehensive plan” to ensure adequate roadway to support development through 2025. Pasco County implements the comprehensive plan through maps, tables, and policies that identify the right-of-way necessary to build Pasco County’s future transportation corridors, predominantly on privately owned land.

Pasco County adopted the Right of Way Preservation Ordinance in November, 2005.1 The Ordinance targets landowners who own property encroached by the corridor and who aspire to build on the property adjoining the corridor. In exchange for a development permit, the Ordinance requires those landowners to agree to dedicate the corridor in fee simple to Pasco County. . Under the Ordinance, Pasco County withholds the, construction permit until the landowner dedicates the property “by recordation on the face of the plat, deed, grant of easement, or other method acceptable to the County.” Code § 319.8(A); Code § 901.2(H). If the property owner declines the dedication, Pasco County declines the construction permit.

Once a landowner dedicates the land to Pasco County, the landowner may apply to Pasco County’s Development Review Committee for. permission to use his former land until Pasco County needs to build the road. The Ordinance provides a list of specific and temporary “interim uses,” such as a produce stand or a bridal path for a residential zone or a boat storage yard or a ground to host “festivals, carnivals, community fairs, and the like” for a commercial zone. Code § 319.6(C)(1); Code § 901.2(F)(3). When and if Pasco County needs the land, the former landowner must remove any permitted, temporary use (for example, a lemonade stand, a Tilt-A-Whirl, or a putt-putt course).

1.1.1. The Waiver

If expecting compensation for the conveyance, the landowner must apply to the Review Committee for a “waiver”:

Where the property owner believes that the amount of land required to be dedicated to the county under the [right-of-[1244]*1244way dedication provision] exceeds the amount of land that is roughly proportional to the transportation impacts of the proposed development site and expanded - development site, or believes that any other county transportation-related exaction, dedication, condition or requirement ... is not roughly proportional to the transportation impacts of the proposed development site and expanded development site, the property owner may apply to the development review committee for a dedication waiver. '

Code § 319.9(A); Code § 901.2(I)(1). The waiver application must contain the following:

a.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
939 F. Supp. 2d 1240, 2013 WL 1502627, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hillcrest-property-llp-v-pasco-county-flmd-2013.