Agins v. City of Tiburon

California state law required the city to prepare a general plan governing both land use and the development of open space land.

After Dr and Ms Agins acquired 5 acres (20,000 m²) of unimproved property zoned one house per acre, the city announced that it intended to acquire it, and issued bonds to finance the taking. It filed an eminent domain action, but on the eve of trial abandoned it. Instead, it amended the zoning ordinance placing the subject land in a zone that permitted construction of one to five homes, the exact number being discretionary with the city. The owners contended that the applying for permit(s) to construct seriatim of one to five home would be economically infeasible and that the city intended to convert their land into open space by preventing its development. They sued seeking just compensation for a regulatory taking.

The owners alleged that their land had greater value than other land in California because of its spectacular views of San Francisco Bay, and the rezoning prevented economically feasible development, thereby completely destroying its value, and thus effecting its taking without just compensation in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

In an opinion that broke with preexisting state law, the California Supreme Court refused to recognize the existence of a regulatory taking cause of action, and held that the only remedy available to the owner would be a petition for a writ of mandate seeking to invalidate the regulation on grounds of denial of substantive due process. Though the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that decision on other grounds in 1980, in 1987 it overruled the California Supreme Court's Agins decision in First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. Los Angeles County (1987).

In its Agins opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court never reached the issue of whether an as-applied taking occurred because it thought the case was unripe; the Agins had failed to apply for the necessary development permit. The court held that the zoning ordinance did not on its face deny Agins all use of the land, and hence there was no facial taking. Nor did the court reach the principal question submitted to it: whether there was a regulatory taking as applied. Instead it held that the aggrieved owner's remedy is not "just compensation" as specified in the Fifth Amendment, but only a judgment declaring the regulation in question to be invalid. This was an error. Eventually, in 1987, in the First English case, the Supreme Court overruled the California Supreme Court's Agins no-compensation decision.

It took Ms. Agins over 30 years of administrative proceedings and litigation, plus an expenditure of $500,000 in municipal fees before she was finally permitted to build three houses on the subject five acre property.

The question in this case was whether the ordinances took Agins' property without just compensation.

The complaint framed the question as to whether a state court's decision to deny compensation for regulatory takings was constitutional, and whether a zoning ordinance that de facto forbade all development of their land effected a taking under the 5th and 14th Amendments. However, as noted, because the owners had not yet applied for a permit for development, the court found that the issue of whether an as-applied taking occurred, was not yet ripe for decision. Therefore, the only issue left was whether this zoning ordinance constituted a taking on its face.

The Court held that a general zoning law can be a taking if the ordinance does not substantially advance a legitimate state interest or denies an owner economically viable use of his land. In spite of its finding of lack of ripeness, the U. S. Supreme Court affirmed the California Supreme Court's holding that the zoning ordinances did not on their face effect an uncompensated taking.

The lower court's decision in Agins v. City of Tiburon was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987, in the case of First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. County of Los Angeles, and the US Supreme Court's own 1980 Agins v. Tiburon decision was overruled in 2005 in Lingle v. Chevron because the court realized that its Agins decision had been decided on the basis of substantive due process rather than takings law.

The Court thought that the ordinance in question substantially advanced legitimate governmental goals by discouraging premature and unnecessary conversion of open space land to urban uses, thus staving off the ill effects of urbanization. But the court did not address the converse of that proposition, namely, that large-lot zoning tends to promote urban sprawl.

The court also failed to note that in its Euclid v, Ambler case it held expressly that the owner need not seek building entitlements before suing on constitutional grounds.

In conclusion, (1) the California Supreme Court ruling in Agins was expressly overruled in 1987 in the First English case, (2) the US Supreme Court's own Agins doctrinal basis was abrogated in 1987 in Lingle v. Chevron, because it had confused takings law with substantive due process doctrine, and (3) requiring the aggrieved property owner to seek state judicial remedies before suing in federal court for compensation under Section 1983. was abrogated in 2019 in Knick v. Township of Scott. which held that the owners may sue directly in federal court upon the taking of their land.

• Text of Agins v. City of Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255 (1980) is available from:  Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio) 

Gideon Kanner and Michael M Berger, The Nasty, Brutish and Short Life of Agins v. City of Tiburon, 50 Urban Lawyer 1 (2020)