Three weeks ago, the State of Florida deposited $8.85 million with
the Clerk of Court for Monroe County to compensate the landowners in Florida
DEP v. West for the condemnation of their North Key Largo
properties in April 2004. When this eminent domain action was filed as a
slow-take in 1995, the State offered a mere $160,000 for the subject
properties. Our response to the slow-take was a regulatory taking
counterclaim. That was our way to protect landowners from the State
"walking away" from any jury verdict it did not like.
Land values began to rise in 2001 -- although not on these properties. In
2004 the State opted for a "quick-take." At that time, the
State's estimated fair market value of the two parcels -- based on the confiscatory
regulatory scheme -- was $630,000. But after executing the quick-take,
the State could no longer walk away from a jury verdict that exceeded its
budget. After all, nobody had been able to build on North Key Largo since
February 8, 1982 (except at the Ocean Reef Club and a few existing
subdivisions).
After the 2004 quick-takes, we re-cast the regulatory taking counterclaim
into a jury instruction on condemnation blight. Even though the Florida
Supreme Court has embraced condemnation blight on at least
two occasions, the State's in-house attorneys could not grasp the concept.
Fortunately we had a trial judge, Luis Garcia, who understands government
cannot prohibit a landowner from using his property, and then benefit from
its own actions by driving down the property's acquisition cost. (In 2001,
Judge Garcia ruled the same way in another case, Shadek
v Monroe County, where White & Case attorney Doug Halsey raised
the same issues and Monroe County settled by paying $6 million in
temporary taking damages.)
So ... the government goes down for the count again! I have remarked, on
numerous occasions, that the reason for this waste of money is nothing
more than the "tyranny of the majority" in small, attractive,
relatively well-to-do communities such as the Florida Keys. Those who
already own homes in the Keys will do everything in their power to
prevent others from doing so. To that end, the "got-miners"
elect like-minded County Commissioners, who respond by prohibiting new
development wherever they find it. It's a self-perpetuating, downward
spiral, that could well -- unless reversed -- bankrupt every owner of
developed property in the Keys.
To got-miners: think about it!
To got-miners: think about it!
After
the 3rd District Court of Appeal denied the State's Motion for Rehearing in 
