Nollan v. California Coastal Commission
Case Date: 11/04/1987
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In Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, 483 U.S. 825 (1987), the United States Supreme Court reviewed a regulation under which the California Coastal Commission required that an offer to dedicate a lateral public easement along the Nollans' beachfront lot be recorded on the chain of title to the property as a condition of approval of a permit to demolish an existing bungalow and replace it with a three-bedroom house. The Coastal Commission had asserted that the public-easement condition was imposed to promote the legitimate state interest of diminishing the "blockage of the view of the ocean" caused by construction of the larger house. The Court held that in evaluating such claims, it must be determined whether an "essential nexus" exists between a legitimate state interest and the permit condition.
Nollan v. California Coastal Commission is one of the few land-use-regulation cases reviewed by the United States Supreme Court. In a controversial 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that a requirement by the CCC was a taking in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
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