Infrastructure fees are a common battleground between landowners/developers and local governments. The Supreme Court decided a case this week that counts as a “win” for the local governments, reversing a Court of Appeals...more
Any stock brokerage website will tell you that “past performance is not indicative of future results.” The same is true in the context of land use permitting, such that what a municipality “had done” cannot ripen a claim to...more
We spend a lot of time in this space talking about land use ordinances. But what about the tools deployed in the event of a violation of those ordinances? State law provides that municipal and county governments may avail of...more
Zoning laws, like any other laws, can change from time to time. What happens if your structure, lot, or use is permitted under an existing law, but the law changes in a way that your structure, lot, or use is suddenly no...more
Crack open any law dictionary worth its salt and you will find the Latin phrase “Qui Tacet Consentire Videtur” or “He who is silent appears to consent.” Do not be fooled – context matters – a pithy Latin phrase is not a...more
Impact fees are defined, generally, as a charge on new development to pay for the construction or expansion of off-site capital improvements that are necessitated by and/or benefit the new development. Impact fees have been...more
Today, a three judge panel of the North Carolina state court declared unconstitutional a State law that blocks a municipality -- one municipality -- from exercising its power to create an extraterritorial planning...more
Today, the N.C. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a takings case filed by a local government. The case is Town of Matthews v. Wright, No. COA14-943 (April 21, 2015)....more
The City of Raleigh, growing at a seemingly undeniable pace, is aiming to "get ahead" of the governance challenges such growth portends by splitting the City's Department of Planning and Development into two separate...more
In 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the following statute allowing payment of attorney fees in the face of certain local government acts...more
As any good business knows, a good website is critical. A good website provides an impression, serves at a repository for information, functions as a means of communication and works as a vehicle for a transaction, among...more
Raleigh, North Carolina -- the Land Use Litigator's home base -- has officially entered the fray of urban centers embracing the planning and business value of urban "parklets". The City is now accepting applications from...more