SCOTUS May Review California Land-Use Case

Paul Beard

LOS ANGELES—SCOTUS may weigh in on a California land-use case that argues that the government isn’t providing rigorous scrutiny as required by the Constitution. In 616 Croft Ave. LLC v. City of West Hollywood, the government claims that it is exempt from imposing scrutiny—as required by a previous case in the late 1980s—by forcing a developer to allot a portion of its project to affordable housing. Property rights advocates Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights Legal Fund have filled a brief for the Supreme Court to review the case and decide if the city should be required to scrutinize projects regardless of the government agency permitting the change. To find out more about this case and why it is so important, we sat down with Paul Beard, a counsel in Alston & Bird’s Environmental, Land Use & Natural Resources Practice Group, for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: How should the government be handling exactions? What is the precedent?