Sheetz v. El Dorado County (Takings Clause)

George Sheetz was required by the County of El Dorado to pay $23,420
George Sheetz tried to get a residential building permit from El Dorado County.  To do so, the County made him pay a $23,420 "traffic impact fee."  The fee was part of the County's "General Plan" -- this plan was intended to address the impact that development has on public services. 

This fee was calculated based on a standard schedule, rather than any actual impact resulting from his development.  Sheetz paid the fee under protest.  He sued in state court, claiming that the fee amounted to an "exaction" that violated the Takings Clause.  Sheetz argued that the Supreme Court's decisions in Nollan v. California Coastal Comm'n and Dolan v. City of Tigard, require the County to make an individualized determination. The County argued that these cases only apply to individual decisions by administrators, but not by legislative bodies.  

Held: The Takings Clause does not distinguish between legislative and administrative land-use permit conditions.

a) The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment requires the government to pay "just compensation" when property is taken.  This Clause also stands for the notion that public costs should be paid by the public, not individual people.  Yet, States do have substantial authority to generally regulate land use.   Land use regulations are generally acceptable so long as they are “reasonably necessary to the effectuation of a substantial government purpose” -- so long as it does not take too much value or frustrate the investment backed expectations of the owner.  The government may also deny a building permit within its police power purpose when the ends match it.  The government can prevent development if it is related to the issues (i.e. giving land to widen a road when congestion will be increased), but this needs to be related to the government interest, otherwise, it amounts to extortion.  To be constitutional, permit conditions must have an 1) essential nexus to the government interest; and 2) must have rough proportionality to the public use.  

b) The decisions below upheld the traffic impact fee because they reasoned that Nolan and Dolan do not apply to legislative fees (but instead, only administrative), nothing in the constitutional text or history suggests this reading.  There is no reason why the Nolan and Dolan tests should not apply to legislation, but only to administrative actions.  

c) Building permit conditions are not exempt from Nolan or Dolan scrutiny only because they were imposed by a legislative body.  

Vacated and remanded. 

Justice Barrett delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.  Sotomayor filed a concurrence, which was joined by Jackson.  Gorsuch filed a concurrence.  Kavanaugh filed a concurrence, in which Kagan and Jackson joined.