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Supreme Court hears challenge to county impact fee in Sheets v. County of El Dorado
Summary
The Supreme Court heard arguments over whether legislatively set development impact fees must face the Court’s Nolan/Dolan/Koontz unconstitutional‑conditions scrutiny. Petitioner says a $23,000 permit fee imposed on George Sheets was coercive; the county says programmatic fees are akin to taxes or special assessments and should receive more deferential review.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with whether legislatively adopted development impact fees are categorically immune from the Court’s heightened unconstitutional‑conditions test in Nolan and Dolan.
Petitioner’s counsel, Mr. Beard, told the justices that the County of El Dorado conditioned a building permit on payment of roughly $23,000 and called the choice ‘‘an impossible choice, the taking of over $23,000 or the ability to use his land.’’ He argued that when a monetary demand is tied to a particular landowner’s permit, the government is effectively leveraging the permit and that the Court’s precedents require heightened review to ensure exactions are genuinely mitigation rather than a way to raise revenue from a few property owners.
The county, through counsel Miss McGrath, urged the Court to treat programmatic impact fees as the…
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