Nexus Redux on Required Land Dedications

Abstract

In Dolan v. City of Tigard, (1994), 46 ZD 232, the Supreme Court struck down a municipal building permit condition that the landowner dedicate bike pathand greenway/ flood-plain easements to the city. As the Court pointed out, had Tigard simply required such dedications, it would be required to pay compensation under the Fifth Amendment. Attaching them as building permit conditions required a more sophisticated analysis closely following Nollan v. Cali-fornia Coastal Commission, 483 U.S. 825 (1987), 39 ZD 226, since the police power is implicated rather than the power of eminent domain. In the process, the Court signalled how far local government may go in passing on the cost of public facilities to landowners. The answer: only to the extent that the required dedication is related both in nature and extent to the impact of the proposed development.