CCP 09-12-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Dorothy Person . August 2, 1994 Page 2 some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole. Armstrong v. United States, 364 U.S. 40, 49 (1960) . Two aspects of the state enabling legislation (M.S. 462.358, Subd. 2b) which allows a city to impose public use dedications should be reviewed in the context of the Tigard decision. First, Minnesota law requires a city to make a reasonable determination in regard to the public dedication requirement. The "reasonable determination" standard of our current state law seems to be consistent with the Supreme Court's recently enunciated "individualized determination" standard. Both standards require that cities review each application on a case by case basis. Second, Minnesota law states that a city can exact a / reasonable portion of the proposed subdivision for public use dedications. However, in Tigard, the Supreme Court specifically rejected the reasonable relationship test and instead adopted a "roughly proportional" test. Apparently, the precise meaning of the term "roughly proportional" will be left to future litigation. However, it appears that there is now a greater burden on cities to . show how the proposed impact of a subdivision would justify the amount of the public use dedication which is being required by the city. In my judgment, the text of the City's current regulation (Arden Hills Code 22-9) is consistent with both the Supreme Court's standards in Tiqard and with the Minnesota Statutes. Although the dedication is mandatory, the City's regulations indicate that the Council will be "guided" by the expressed percentage requirements. Therefore, the City's regulations retain discretion for the City Council. The City's discretion should obviously be exercised in a manner consistent with the Tigard standards. In its application of the Code, the City should: 1. Make sure that there is a connection between a legitimate public interest and the required dedication; and 2. Make sure that the amount of the dedication is roughly proportional to the projected impact of the development. .