The State ex rel. Preschool Development, Ltd. v. City of
Supreme Court of
99
Facts: PDL has a preschool along
Route 73. They had a curb cut so people
could drive right into their lot. The
city repaved the road and removed the curb cut so people could only get to the
preschool by way of the adjacent drug store.
PDL filed a complaint saying that eliminating the curb cut was a
compensable taking under the
Issue: Was the elimination of the
curb cut a “taking”?
Rule: A property owner’s right of
access to a public street cannot be “lawfully destroyed or unreasonably
affected”.
Analysis: The majority finds that the
elimination of the curb cut did not totally destroy
nor unreasonably affect PDL’s access to Route 73.
There was still access to PDL through the drug store parking lot, and
the court found that this wasn’t an unreasonable inconvenience. The court may also have given weight to the
fact that Springboro had previously told PDL that it would be safer to give
customers access through the drug store in the first place (before the
repaving).
The
dissent says that the majority relies on the wrong case. In OTR,
the court found that a complete denial
of access to the property isn’t necessary to constitute a taking. That is, even if another way to access a property
remains, the interference with an existing
property right is a taking.
The
dissent also notes that this property may not be a preschool forever, and the
loss of the curb cut could reduce the value of the property if it is later sold
to another business for which direct access is more important.
Conclusion: The writ of mandamus is
denied.