- Term
- 2023-2024
Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, California
When issuing building permits for new developments, the County of El Dorado, California charges “traffic impact mitigation fees” in order to finance improvements to municipal roads. A resident who applied for a building permit is suing the county, arguing that the fee violates the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause. In Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, the Supreme Court considered the future of local government fees and whether to limit the ability of local governments to raise funds for infrastructure projects that help address new development.
On April 12, 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the takings clause “does not distinguish between legislative and administrative land-use permit conditions,” keeping its ruling fairly narrow and declining to directly weigh in on whether or not the fee in the case was in fact a taking.
