On July 5, 2012, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued an important property rights decision in Brown v. City of Medford.
In 2007, Jed Brown filed a land use application with the City of Medford to partition his property into two parcels so he could build two houses on his property.
Medford approved his application, but the city planners demanded that Brown give the city a portion of his property so that the city could construct a new street on the south end of Brown’s property. The city had no need for the new street – Brown’s property already had access onto another fully developed city street – but the city demanded Brown give up a chunk of his property anyway.
If Brown refused, the city would refuse to approve his land use application. Sound like extortion? It should, because that’s what it is.
After all, the city could condemn the property and pay Brown for it if they really wanted it. But rather than doing that, the city held Brown hostage, and demanded the property in exchange for approval of the land use application.
Rather than caving in to the city demands, Brown fought back, and took Medford to court.
In his lawsuit, Brown relied on one case and one statute. The case Brown relied on was Dolan v. City of Tigard. The statute he relied on was ORS 197.796, a law passed by the Oregon legislature in 1999.
What does this have to do with Oregonians In Action? Dolan v. City of Tigard, one of the most significant property rights cases in the last century of the U.S. Supreme Court, was an OIA case, handled (and won) by OIA attorneys.
And ORS 197.796, the Oregon law that gave Brown the right to file his lawsuit and collect his damages and attorney fees from the city, was an OIA sponsored bill from the 1999 session, drafted by OIA lawyers and adopted as a result of the work of OIA lobbyists.
In other words, one critical US Supreme Court ruling and one important Oregon law gave Brown his victory, and paved the way for significant limitations on cities using land use applications as a means of stealing people’s property. And both were the direct result of OIA’s work for Oregon property owners.
Congratulations, Mr. Brown, on a hard fought victory.
The post OIA Paves The Way For An Important Property Rights Court Ruling appeared first on Oregonians In Action.