This submit was authored by Matthew Loescher, Esq.
Plaintiff Oberer Land Builders, LTD served as developer of the Dille/Cornerstone mission that, in years of litigation between the Metropolis of Centerville and Defendant Sugarcreek Township, Ohio relating as to if or not a municipality might annex land from a township. On this case, Oberer alleged that members of Defendant Sugarcreek Township, Ohio Board of Trustees resented Oberer for its place throughout the earlier annexation dispute, and the Board of Trustees allowed that ill-will to have an effect on its decision to deny Oberer’s newer software program to rezone positive parcels of land positioned in Sugarcreek.
On the outset, the courtroom found that Plaintiffs failed to carry their “heavy burden” to point out a class-of-one declare. In assist of this declare, Plaintiffs tried to draw a comparability between Rammel Farm and two completely different Oberer developments — Black Farm and Woodland Ridge — whose zoning capabilities had been accredited by the Board of Trustees. Previous the reality that every one three properties had been regulated by the LRLUP, nonetheless, Plaintiffs did not reveal by affidavits, deposition testimony, or in some other case how these properties had been materially comparable.
The courtroom moreover well-known that, fairly than alleging a per se taking, Plaintiffs tried to present a triable regulatory taking declare. The doc mirrored that two trustees had stated, whereas explaining why they voted down the zoning software program, that they’d been open to revisiting the proposal if Oberer larger outlined the way in which it deliberate to meet the open home requirement. The courtroom found that had Plaintiffs achieved as a result of the trustees had been instructed, their software program might have been accredited. Moreover, nevertheless their software program, Plaintiffs might have provided the undeveloped land to a distinct developer ready to fulfill the BZC and Board of Trustees’ requirements.
As a final matter, Plaintiffs contended that, beneath Ohio statutory laws, neither Sugarcreek, as a township, nor its administrator, in his functionality as a township marketing consultant, had the ability to enter a non-annexation settlement. As plaintiffs federal claims had been dismissed by summary judgment, the courtroom declined to coach supplemental jurisdiction over this declare.
Oberer Land Builders, LTD v Sugarcreek Township, 2021 WL 3883922 (SD OH 8/31/2021)