Courts rejected maximization of land value as the measure of owners’ rights

Evidence

The Just v. Marinette County decision was especially important because the court directly challenged the idea “that an owner has a right to use his property in any way and for any purpose he sees fit.” To comply with the Shoreland Protection Act, the county had prohibited the filling of wetlands near lakes and streams without a permit, and the plaintiffs claimed that the permit requirement unconstitutionally reduced the value of their lakefront land. The court readily acknowledged that wetlands were worth more when filled to make building sites. Yet the court rejected the claim that the plaintiffs were entitled to the profits of development. “An owner of land,” the court held, “has no absolute and unlimited right to change the essential natural character of his land so as to use it for a purpose for which it was unsuited in its natural state and which injures the rights of others.” To protect the health and welfare of the public, the government had the right to limit “the use of private property to its natural uses.” — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 950

Categorization

• XREF: Direct legal foundation for LGST 1110 on property law’s boundaries — shows the ‘natural uses’ doctrine as a departure from pure development value. — connects to: Ecological reasoning led courts to deny landowners absolute rights over land — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 319; Land value is created by society, not the landowner’s enterprise — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 537; Courts reversed their view that only profitable land uses deserve protection — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 951 (+4 more)
• SEED: Essay angle: how the Just decision’s ‘natural uses’ doctrine anticipates contemporary debates about public-trust and regenerative property law.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Courts reversed their view that only profitable land uses deserve protection #corroborates (0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 951
• Entrenched property-ownership ideals defeated the effort to treat land as a social resource #corroborates (0.78) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1077
• Excessive property rights can block beneficial use rather than enable it #expands (0.72) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 2284