North Carolina Court Finds "Map Act" Filing Equates to a "Taking"
Under North Carolina statute, once the department of transportation files a map depicting a future taking, “no building permit shall be issued for any building or structure or part thereof located within
the transportation corridor, nor shall approval of a subdivision . . . be granted with respect to property within the transportation corridor.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 136-44.51(a). The property owners here complained that the filing of the map effectuated a taking of their property without just compensation. Kirby v. North Carolina Dep’t of Transportation (No. Carolina Court of Appeals, Feb. 17, 2015). The statute provides for three exceptions to the general rule. The plaintiffs filed complaint alleging takings claims, and further alleging that the administrative remedies set forth in the statute were “inadequate and unconstitutional.”
The question presented: “In the present case, this Court must consider whether the restrictions of the Map Act that were applicable to Plaintiffs at the time the maps were filed substantially interfered with the elemental rights growing out of Plaintiffs’ ownership of their properties so as to have effected a taking and provided grounds for the trial court to consider Plaintiffs’ claims for inverse condemnation as ripe.”
The conclusion: “Therefore, with potentially long-lasting statutory restrictions that constrain Plaintiffs’ ability to freely improve, develop, and dispose of their own property, we must conclude that the Map Act is distinguishable from the cases that established the rule that “the recording of a map showing proposed highways, without any provision for compensation to the landowners until future proceedings of condemnation are taken to obtain the land, does not constitute a taking of the land, or interfere with the
owner’s use and enjoyment thereof.”
The holding: “we hold the trial court erred when it concluded Plaintiffs’ claims for inverse condemnation were not yet ripe based on its determination that Plaintiffs did not suffer a taking at
the time NCDOT filed the transportation corridor maps for the Western and Eastern Loops.”
New Jersey has a “map act.” But unlike North Carolina, the statute does not expressly limit the owner’s future use or development of the property. That statutory absence did not provide any relief or comfort to Helen Schnack when the State, Dep’t of Transportation filed a highway alignment map depicting her house within the path of a future highway. Schnack v. State (Docket No. A-4840-76).
Maybe its time to revisit the issue here in the Garden State.
