Opinion ID: 71219
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deprivation of the Right to Exclude

Text: 7 NPL argues that the County's action constitutes a deprivation of the right to exclude. See generally Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164, 179-80, 100 S.Ct. 383, 393, 62 L.Ed.2d 332 (1979) ([W]e hold that the 'right to exclude,' so universally held to be a fundamental element of the property right, falls within this category of interests that the government cannot take without compensation....). NPL's argument here is that by rezoning to airport use, thus precluding all use of the property but as a private airport, the County effectively circumvent[ed] eminent domain through its zoning power. The County, according to NPL, zoned private property so it could only be used for the public good; in essence, the property would function as publicly owned property. 8 The County's act of rezoning the property to private airport was not, in itself, a deprivation of the right to exclude. NPL nowhere contends that, as a matter of law, the rezoning to private airport required it to admit the public. Because the property could have remained dormant, consistent with the PA zoning, NPL cannot argue that the rezoning was a deprivation of the right to exclude in the traditional sense. 9 Thus, NPL presses a more creative argument. In support of its theory that it was basically forced to invite the public onto its land, NPL relies on Rippley v. City of Lincoln, 330 N.W.2d 505 (N.D.1983), which found a taking where residential property was rezoned for public use. The North Dakota court reasoned that the rezoning had the purpose and practical effect of appropriating private property for public uses without giving the landowners the constitutionally required compensation. Id. at 508-09. 10 The Rippley case is unpersuasive as authority for this particular plaintiff for a number of reasons, but suffice it to say that the Rippley rezoning allowed only public uses (such as school, park, sewage treatment plant, and so on). There, the property would have yielded no revenue unless the City of Lincoln decided to purchase it. Id. at 508. Otherwise, the Rippley plaintiffs could use their property only by allowing the public access free of charge: all residential and commercial uses were prohibited. Id. Here, regardless of Plaintiff's chances of ever turning a profit, see below Part II.B, Plaintiff remained free to transact some business, for profit, with the public at large. Thus, we reject the argument that the rezoning was a de facto condemnation. The reasoning of Rippley, even were we to conclude it is persuasive, does not require compensation here. 11 Plaintiff's analogies to Nollan v. California Coastal Comm'n, 483 U.S. 825, 107 S.Ct. 3141, 97 L.Ed.2d 677 (1987), and Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374, 114 S.Ct. 2309, 129 L.Ed.2d 304 (1994), are also inapposite. In these cases, a state had demanded that a person open his or her property to public traffic, again without compensation. That fact distinguishes NPL's situation: the regulation in this case told NPL how it could use the property for profit, but did nothing to require NPL to open its property to the public for use just as the public wished.