Mission Springs v City of Spokane :: 134 Wn2d 947
Category: Land Use and Property Rights
The Supreme Court upheld the vested rights of a development permit. The City of Spokane had wrongfully withheld a grading permit after approval of a PUD (planned unit development) and previous grading and building permits.
The record shows the council acted capriciously, unlawfully and arbitrarily in directing the issuing department to deny the permit. This was also a violation of separation of powers for the legislative body to interfere with the executive department’s operations outside the scope of rule making. Therefore, the majority denied legislative immunity to the council members. [at 969-70].
Furthermore, the Court upheld that Mission Springs had a “constitutionally cognizable property right in the grading permit it sought” [at 962]. And that “The right to use and enjoy land is a property right.” [at 962]. The Court upheld that the owners were deprived of due process and that a “cause of action for deprivation of property without due process is ripe immediately because the harm occurs at the time of the violation...” [at 964-65]. As such, the owners were not obligated to exhaust their administrative remedies before pursuing this case.
Rating the Usual Suspects:
| pass | Alexander, Gerry | |
| pass | Conklin, Frank | |
| pass | Dolliver, James | |
| pass | Durham, Barbara | |
| pass | Madsen, Barbara | |
| pass | Sanders, Richard | |
| pass | Sloane, James | |
| pass | Smith, Charles | |
| fail | Dalton, Patrick | |
| fail | Donohue, Michael E | |
| fail | Johnson, Charles | |
| fail | Rowland, Milton | |
| fail | Staeheli, Gregory | |
| fail | Talmadge, Phil | |
| fail | Williams, Meriwether |