House Passes Bill on Property Rights

By MARY DALRYMPLE

WASHINGTON – The House on Friday passed a bill giving landowners easier access to federal courts when claiming violations of their constitutional rights in land disputes.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Steven Chabot, R-Ohio, said people in property disputes must now travel a lengthy and costly legal path through local appeals boards and state courts. Past court decisions have effectively closed landowners’ access to federal courts, he said.

“This particular legislation levels the playing field for small- and middle-class property owners and retirees,” Chabot said.

Opponents said quick access to federal courts means costly and difficult legal battles for cities and zoning boards trying to mitigate large developments or enforce their environmental or safety regulations.

“This bill is quite simply an effort to take away the rights of each and every property owner who wants to alter or even block an unwanted development,” said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y. “It is a very dangerous bill.”

Boehlert said the effect will be that “the developers can scare localities into not doing their most fundamental jobs.”

The 231-181 vote sent the bill to the Senate, where it’s unlikely to be passed this year. The vote reversed the House’s rejection of the bill earlier this week, when it failed under a special procedure that required a two-thirds vote for passage.

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution includes a clause that bars the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. In some cases, courts have granted compensation when regulations limit landowners’ use of their property.

Chabot said there’s nothing in the bill stopping localities from having environmental, health and safety regulations. But if those regulations deny a landowner the use of his property, “The owner needs to be paid just compensation,” he said. “The Fifth Amendment does not have an exemption for environmental laws or any other laws.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the bill requires localities to pay for any reduction in the use of property that might be caused by rules designed to preserve the character of communities or property values.

“Nobody’s going to be able to go to their local zoning board and complain,” he said. “They’ll have to go to the Supreme Court, which won’t have time for them.”

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Information about the bill, H.R. 4772, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/