The Hidden Agenda (?): Buckeye and Due Process Review of Land Use Decisions

Abstract

For those sensible states that do not allow land use referenda (approximately half of the total), City of Cuyahoga Falls v. Buckeye Community Hope Foundation may seem to be someone else's problem. After all, in our calmer, saner jurisdictions (mainly in the East), we have, as a matter of state law, decided that land use referenda are an affront to good planning. In fact, the Buckeye facts themselves demonstrate the wisdom ultimately attained by the Ohio Supreme Court when it voided the referendum: it gets ugly when the electorate votes up or down on particular land use measures.