Property rights are the necessary precursor to the freedom to live, work, and prosper. They are woven throughout the Constitution and hold the key solutions to many social problems dominating public debate, from housing shortages to environmental pollution. Recognizing the importance of these rights, in April 2024 the Supreme Court protected the property rights of George Sheetz by requiring a local government development impact fee it imposed on Mr. Sheetz to be proportional and connected to Mr. Sheetz’s plan to put a home on his property.
This workshop seeks to build on the result of Sheetz v. County of El Dorado and chart the course of the next steps in exactions/unconstitutional-conditions law. From Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, through Dolan v. City of Tigard and Koontz v. St. John’s River Water Management District, and now including Sheetz, the Supreme Court has looked to the doctrine of exactions and unconstitutional conditions to ensure property rights are protected. In doing so, it has created a constitutional bulwark protecting the right to build housing on private property, an important stick in the property rights bundle.
The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Sheetz held that legislatively-imposed development-fee schedules are subject to judicial scrutiny under the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions. This ruling promises to change how local and state governments extract development impact fees from property owners in exchange for building permits; and it may very well do more. This is where you come in.
We seek papers that address the questions arising from the Sheetz ruling. We welcome proposals that look at this issue from legal, economic, political, historical, and related angles, including empirical and nonempirical approaches.
Completed paper drafts are due 10 days before the date of the research roundtable but need not be in polished or publishable form. Authors will present their papers at the research roundtable that will be held at PLF’s office in Arlington, Virginia in Spring 2025. Each paper author will be expected to formally comment on others’ papers. We will cover the cost of hotel accommodation and reasonable travel expenses to the roundtable.