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Contact:

Brian T. Hodges
Attorney
Pacific Legal
Foundation
[email-masked]
(425)576-0484

WASHINGTON SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO RESCUE CAO’S “65
PERCENT” SEIZURE OF PROPERTY

PLF Lauds Supreme Court for “Driving a Stake Through One
of the Most Extreme Assaults on Property Rights in the U.S.”

SEATTLE, WA; March 4, 2009: The Washington Supreme Court has let stand an
appellate court ruling that invalidated King County’s freeze on vast areas
of private property in rural areas. The rule, part of King County’s
Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO), was struck down by the Washington State Court of
Appeals in July, 2008. The county petitioned the state Supreme Court
to hear the case, and yesterday the Supreme Court denied the
petition.

Brian
T. Hodges
PLF Attorney

“The state Supreme
Court has served justice by driving a stake through one of the most
extreme and outrageous assaults on property rights in the United States,”
said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Brian T. Hodges, who brought the
legal challenge to the CAO rule. “It’s now time, once and for all, for
King County to stop enforcing this illegal seizure of people’s property
and property rights,” said Hodges, who is managing attorney with PLF’s
Pacific Northwest office in Bellevue, WA. “Incredibly, the county
continued to enforce this unlawful regulation even after the court of
appeals struck it down last summer. Bureaucrats cited a Kent resident for
clearing blackberry and hazard trees on his property. The County even
imposed thousands of dollars of fines against another rural resident. Why?
Because he had the audacity to ask King County to hold off on enforcing
the unlawful land-freeze regulation until the Supreme Court ruled on the
county’s petition for review.”

The CAO rule forced rural property
owners in King County to set aside 50 percent to 65 percent of their
property in a permanent state of “natural vegetation,” and prohibited
building structures or improvements such as a home, barn, or
driveway.

“The death of this rule is a great day for King County
property owners,” Hodges continued. “It is now undisputed that the county
had no authority to deprive residents of the use of their own private
property.” PLF is the nation’s leading legal watchdog organization that
litigates for property rights in courts across the country. In the CAO
challenge, PLF attorneys represent the Citizens Alliance for Property
Rights. “The defeat of this draconian regulation is a landmark victory for
everyone’s property rights,” said Steve Hammond, president of the Citizens
Alliance for Property Rights. “We’re grateful to be able to partner with
Pacific Legal Foundation, especially attorney Brian Hodges, in this
successful fight against oppressive government.”

The appellate
court held that the 65 percent set-aside rule violates a state law
prohibiting a “tax, fee or charge” on land use. Case law establishes that
this prohibition “applies to ordinances that may require developers to set
aside land as a condition of development,” wrote Judge Ronald Cox in a
unanimous decision joined by Judge Susan Agid and Judge Anne Ellington.
None of the limited exceptions in the law apply, the court noted. For
instance, the state’s Growth Management Act does not require CAO’s
uncompensated restrictions on landowners’ use of their
property.

The Citizens Alliance for Property Rights turned to PLF
after the King County Superior Court rejected the grassroots group’s
attempt to place the CAO issue on the ballot. Individuals challenging the
ordinance include avid gardeners, horse owners, someone who planned to
build a home, and another who hoped to build a garage to accompany his
single-family residence. All of them had their plans to reasonably use
their private property derailed by the CAO.

Specifically, the CAO
limited rural landowners with five acres or more to clearing only 35
percent of their property, forcing them to maintain the remaining 65
percent as native vegetation indefinitely. Rural landowners owning less
than five acres were allowed to clear only 50 percent of their parcels.
Affected landowners had to continue paying taxes on the portion of the
property rendered useless by the CAO.

The case is Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights v.
Sims.

About Pacific Legal
Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation (www.pacificlegal.org)
is the nation’s oldest and most successful public interest legal
organization dedicated to protection of property rights, limited
government, and individual freedom

Case Resources

Case Summary

7/7/08 Appellate
Court Decision

7/7/08 Release

3/3/09 Order Denying
Petition

3/4/09
Release

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