Articles

Article : are critical area buffers unconstitutional?

August 31, 2017 | By BRIAN HODGES

Today, the Seattle Journal of Environmental Law published my article, Are Critical Area Buffers Unconstitutional? Demystifying The Doctrine of Unconstitutional Conditions. Although the article focuses on developments in Washington state law, it contains arguments relevant to property rights practitioners elsewhere. For example, the article explains ...

Articles

Fighting to protect San Juan property owners from land grab

May 14, 2015 | By BRIAN HODGES

On June 2, 2015, Division I of the Washington State Court of Appeals is set to hear oral argument in the first state case seeking to limit government’s ability to coerce property from land use applicants since PLF’s landmark victory in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Mgmt. Dist. (2013). The case, Common Sense Alliance … ...

Articles

20 years of Pacific Northwest victories : the enduring impact of the HEAL decision

May 15, 2012 | By BRIAN HODGES

One way that PLF can assure that its property rights victories have a long-lasting impact is to “connect the dots” between past cases and current controversies.  A good example is the Washington Court of Appeals’ 1999 decision in Honesty In Environmental Analysis and Legislation v. Seattle, which stands out as the first Washingto ...

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KAPO’s cert petition is catching attention

December 23, 2011 | By BRIAN HODGES

Earlier this year, PLF filed a petition for a writ certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case, Kitsap Alliance for Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.  The petition asks the Court to review a Washington appellate decision holding that a county can force landowners to dedicate large tracts of private & ...

Articles

Victories and unanswered questions in buffer appeal

July 27, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges Earlier today, the Kitsap Sun published an op-ed that I co-authored with Jackie Rossworn, executive director of Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners.  The op-ed highlights several property rights victories and important issues that remain unresolved after Washington’s Supreme Court declined to review the Kitsap Cou ...

Articles

If a tree pollutes in the woods…

June 07, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges For years, Washington’s Department of Ecology has been trying to determine the source of pollutants entering Puget Sound.  The presumption, of course, has been that those dastardly humans who have the gall to live in a home and drive to work – god forbid that they take a trip to one … ...

Articles

The cost of truth

March 22, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges If truth is held to be a virtue, then why did Washington’s environmental agencies work so hard to stifle a bill that would require them to demonstrate that science used to develop environmental regulations passes the peer-review “sniff test?” The answer (drum-role please): money.  Washington’s D ...

Articles

Rank, rotten, and foul! Kitsap County’s prosecutor uses shoreline buffers to make sure his neighbor can’t build his home

December 14, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges To borrow from Shakespeare, something is rotten in the County of Kitsap.  The County’s elected prosecutor is living the American dream.  He has a fully developed waterfront property with a large home set back approximately 50 feet from his bulkheaded shoreline.  In other words, the prosecutor’s ...

Articles

Court of Appeals : stream buffers took private property

October 25, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges Earlier this year, PLF stepped in to help Kipp and Marilyn Dunlap protect themselves against an uncompensated taking of their vacant residential lot in Nooksack, Washington (located just south of the Canadian border).  As you may recall, the Dunlaps purchased a quarter-acre lot with the dream of building their home the ...