On July 1, 2008, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin (yes, the ultra-liberal court that decided Just v. Marinette County in 1972) ruled that when a land use district has no "as-of-right" uses, said regulation is unconstitutional on substantive due process grounds. (Think Lochner v New York, 198 US 45 (1908).) Click on the title of this post to view and download a copy of the opinion in Town of Rhine v. Bizzell, et al., 2008 WI 76, from the Wisconsin Supreme Court's website.
Sound familiar, Keys landowners? Do I hear "Tier One?" --- "red-flag wetlands?" --- Offshore islands, anyone? It's long past time to start challenging Monroe County's (and its municipalities') confiscatory land "lack-of-use" regulations, starting with the bogus "rate-of-development caps," and working our way through the "tier system" and the local wetland regulations. Oh, and there are no statutes of limitation on constitutional challenges to ordinances or statutes. The ordinance in Wisconsin had been in effect over 20 years before Bizzell, et al., took it down.
Thanks to Pacific Legal Foundation for the heads-up on this positive development.
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