Summary
In Auerbach v. Department of Transportation, 545 So.2d 514, 515 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989), the court found that planning activities were not actionable inasmuch as these types of administrative planning activities were "preparatory to a decision to institute eminent domain proceedings."
Summary of this case from Pembroke Center v. Dept. of TranspOpinion
No. 88-3006.
July 5, 1989.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Dade County, Stuart M. Simons, J.
Fine, Jacobson, Schwartz, Nash, Block and England, and Gary S. Brooks and Joanne M. Rose, Miami, for appellants.
Gregory G. Costas and Thomas H. Bateman, III, Tallahassee, for appellee.
Before HUBBART and FERGUSON and COPE, JJ.
This is an appeal by the plaintiffs Philip and Carol Auerbach from a final order dismissing their second amended complaint for inverse condemnation. We affirm.
Assuming without deciding that the plaintiffs have standing to bring this action after having divested themselves of the subject property in a subsequent mortgage foreclosure action, we conclude that there has been no compensable "taking" in this case. The plaintiffs' complaint alleges that the defendant Florida Department of Transportation's administrative planning actions, preparatory to the institution of possible eminent domain proceedings, rendered their property economically useless and of no value. In our view, such administrative planning, which of necessity requires public hearings, does not in itself constitute a "taking" sufficient to enable the property owner to maintain an inverse condemnation action. This seems to us a self-evident proposition, else administrative planning of this sort, preparatory to a decision to institute eminent domain proceedings, would be, in effect, precluded. See, e.g., Danforth v. United States, 308 U.S. 271, 60 S.Ct. 231, 84 L.Ed. 240 (1939); City of Chicago v. Loitz, 61 Ill.2d 92, 329 N.E.2d 208 (1975); City of Buffalo v. J.W. Clement Co., 28 N.Y.2d 241, 321 N.Y.S.2d 345, 269 N.E.2d 895 (1971), and cases cited therein. See generally 2 J. Sackman, Nichols' The Law of Eminent Domain § 6.21[5][a] (3d ed. 1985 Supp. 1989).
AFFIRMED.