Full public access may soon follow. The author demonstrates in this Article that a purchaser or heir can acquire from a ground lessor a number of interests in addition to the lessor's interest in the land. Finally, to the extent that some of these interests cannot be amortized or depreciated, there occurs a material distortion of the acquiring party's income. Part II of this Article describes a hypothetical situation to illustrate how this problem arises. Part IV briefly describes the position of the Internal Revenue Service with respect to the acquisition of interests, other than land, from a ground lessor.
V demonstrates that interests, other than land, can be acquired from a ground lessor.
Finally, part VI concludes with a discussion of the present treatment of interests, other than land, acquired from a ground lessor. The measure includes a new cause of action providing judicial relief to landowners who suffer inordinate burdens on the use of their land and a new nonjudicial settlement and expedited hearing procedure promoting compromise solutions for disputes between landowners and regulators. The legislation concluded three years of contentious debate over the appropriate means to give landowners protection for the use of their property beyond the constitutional guarantee against the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. The new statute has stirred fears that it will empty the public purse and roll back decades of work in environmental protection and growth management, as well as countervailing concerns among landowners that it will not protect them from the proliferation of regulations that impede their efforts to put their land to productive use. If properly implemented and applied, the measure will have none of the above effects.