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Home » Issues &
Cases » Property
Rights » Featured Case

There’s no “off site” exception to Fifth Amendment’s takings
clause

St. Johns River Water Management District v. Koontz

Contact: Paul J. Beard
II and Brian T.
Hodges

Status: Victory! The U.S. Supreme Court issued a
favorable decision on Jun. 25, 2013, holding that the government's demand
for property from a land use permit must satisfy the Nolan and
Dolan requirements even when it denies the permit.

Summary:

KEEP UP TO DATE
Oral argument audio
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Video:
Clips from Jan. 15 press conference
Video: Background on
Koontz case
Related blog posts

Coy A. Koontz wants to develop commercial land, most of which lies
within a riparian habitat protection zone in Orange County, Florida. He
applied for a dredge and fill permit with the St. Johns Water Management
District. St. Johns agreed to grant the permit, but only on the condition
that he place a conservation easement over his land, and perform
mitigation off-site by replacing culverts and plugging certain drainage
canals on other properties not owned by Koontz and miles away from the
property. When Koontz refused to perform the off-site mitigation, St.
Johns denied the permit.

Koontz filed an inverse condemnation suit in circuit court. Koontz
argued that the off-site mitigation requirement violated Nollan v.
California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. Tigard. The
circuit court applied Nollan and Dolan, holding that the
requirement bore no connection to the project’s alleged impacts on the
riparian habitat protection zone. The court awarded Koontz compensation
for a temporary taking.

The court of appeals affirmed, but the Florida Supreme Court reversed.
The Supreme Court held that no taking under Nollan and
Dolan had occurred, because (1) Nollan and
Dolan apply only to forced dedications of interests in real
property (not to mitigation work); and (2) Nollan and
Dolan apply only when government approves and issues a permit
with conditions (not when it denies a permit, and therefore nothing has
been demanded of or taken from the landowner).

PLF filed a petition on behalf of Koontz in the United States Supreme
Court, asking it to establish: (1) Nollan and Dolan
apply to an exaction that takes the form of a government demand that the
applicant improve property off-site; and (2) these doctrines extend to
permit exactions, where the permit has been denied due to the applicant’s
rejection of that exaction.

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