Opinion ID: 1419944
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The City's K.S.A. 26-513 Argument

Text: The City approaches K.S.A. 26-513 by citing Brock v. State Highway Commission, 195 Kan. 361, 404 P.2d 934 (1965), and its progeny. Brock was not a condemnation case. No land was actually taken; thus, there is no K.S.A. 26-513 discussion in Brock. The City ignores, or does not understand, the primary argument advanced by Wal-Mart. The City simply launches into a discussion of case law on the subject of rights of access, reasonableness, and the police power of the City. Although the City does not directly address Wal-Mart's K.S.A. 26-513 contention, it does rely on relevant case law. We initially focus on three landowner non-recovery cases, Hales v. City of Kansas City, 248 Kan. 181, 804 P.2d 347 (1991); Hudson v. City of Shawnee, 246 Kan. 395, 790 P.2d 933 (1990); and Small v. Kemp, 240 Kan. 113, 727 P.2d 904 (1986). In Hales, the City of Kansas City (City) installed raised curbs on Rainbow Boulevard that prevented motorists from making left hand turns from the Hales' parking lot onto the boulevard. The Hales had the same entrances and exits that they had before the changes, but traffic flow was altered by the City. We upheld summary judgment in favor of the City, saying limiting the landowners' ingress and egress to lanes for southbound travel when they formerly had direct access to both the northbound and southbound lanes of traffic, whether by a median strip, one-way street, or no left turn, is a valid exercise of police power and is not compensable. 248 Kan. at 185. Hales did not address the issue of loss of highway access in terms of diminished market value under K.S.A. 26-513. However, the Hales received no compensation for the altered traffic flow. In Hudson, the City of Shawnee took both temporary and permanent easements to widen 75th Street. Again, we did not address the issue of loss of highway access under K.S.A. 26-513 in terms of diminished market value of the property. However, in affirming the moderate award of damages in favor of the landowner, we said: Concurrent with a compensable taking in a condemnation proceeding, the State may validly exercise the police power for traffic control and public safety, for which there can be no compensation, even if it affects the method of ingress and egress to the affected property. 246 Kan. 397, Syl. ¶ 3. In Small, the State took a temporary easement on a portion of the landowner's property to relocate a frontage road. After relocation, the landowner's animal clinic was more difficult to reach. Before trial, the district court held, as a matter of law, that when the State relocated the frontage road, it was acting under its power of eminent domain (there was a taking of access to the highway). The jury awarded Small $50,000 in damages. K.S.A. 26-513 was discussed. 240 Kan. at 116. We did not discuss the specific paragraphs in K.S.A. 26-513(d) relating to loss of access. However, we held that the diminution of the Small's property could not be treated as a taking because the State's action did not disturb Small's control or use of the property. 240 Kan. at 119. We reversed the district court and remanded for a new trial. None of these three cases directly addresses the evidentiary question of what factors may properly be considered under K.S.A. 26-513(d). All three cases hold, however, that changes in traffic flow, ingress, and egress, even if concurrent with a compensable taking, are not compensable if the taking is the result of a reasonable exercise of police power. Right of Access and Regulation of Traffic Flow Distinguished Terminology is important in resolving the issues here. A review of our highway condemnation case law suggests that the term access has been frequently misused by both litigants and courts. There is a significant distinction between right of access and regulation of traffic flow. [R]ight of access is traditionally defined as an abutting landowner's common-law right of access from the landowner's property to abutting public roads. Such a right is the right to reasonable, but not unlimited, access to existing and adjacent public roads. Brock, 195 Kan. at 370. When the government actually blocks or takes away existing access to and from property, the landowner is generally entitled to compensation. See McCall, 215 Kan. 390, Syl. ¶ 4 (landowner was compensated when an entrance to business was permanently closed); Kohn Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Overland Park, 221 Kan. 230, 559 P.2d 771 (1977). Regulation of traffic flow or circuity of access as it is called by the parties is an entirely separate concept. An abutting owner has no right to the continuation of a flow of traffic from nearby highways to the owner's property. Regulation of traffic flow has also been referred to as restricted access. See Garrett v. City of Topeka, 259 Kan. 896, 922,916 P.2d 21 (1996); Teachers Insurance & Annuity Ass'n of America v. City of Wichita, 221 Kan. 325, 335, 559 P.2d 347 (1977); and Kohn, 221 Kan. at 232. Restricting a landowner's access to and from the highway through the regulation of traffic flow raises police power questions. Inverse condemnation cases often stem from issues of restricted accesswhere a new highway is constructed, moved, or traffic is re-routed and adjacent landowners are adversely affected by the changes. See Brock, 195 Kan. 361; Ray v. State Highway Commission, 196 Kan. 13, 410 P.2d 278, cert. denied 385 U.S. 820 (1966); see also Eberth v. Carlson, 266 Kan. 726, 971 P.2d 1182 (1999) (discussing inverse condemnation, right of access, and regulation of traffic flow). With these distinctions in mind, we now return to Wal-Mart's K.S.A. 26-513 argument. Wal-Mart claims two types of damages: temporary and permanent.