Flashcards Studio

Builder applied for a permit to construct 40 townhomes on a vacant parcel. The project would add about 300 daily vehicle trips and would increase stormwater runoff into a creek. City approved the permit only if Builder dedicated a 30-foot-wide public trail easement along the creek, paid a $500,000 transportation-impact fee, and gave City a corner of the parcel for a future fire station. A city ordinance authorized the fee and required similar dedications for large residential projects.
City's staff report explained that the trail easement would also create public recreational access across Builder's land. The transportation fee was based on citywide road costs, not on an individualized estimate of this project's traffic impact. The fire-station parcel was not connected to traffic, stormwater, or access needs created by Builder's project. Builder paid under protest and sued.
Analyze Builder's constitutional challenges to the permit conditions. Address essential nexus, rough proportionality, monetary exactions, dedications of property interests, and the effect of the fact that the conditions were authorized by ordinance.