1991-12-09 Public Hearing, Citizens Participation Meeting, and Regular Meeting

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NO'~C . opinion is Iubject to. tonnaJ revision bertAubUeation in the pre" rint of the United States Reporta. ReadllPare requested to DotiIJ the .porter of Deciaions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wub- iftctOn. D. C. 20643, of any typographical or other formal error'l, in order that c:orrectiona may be made before the preliminary print roes to prell. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 85-1199 FIRST ENGLISH EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF GLENDALE, APPELLANT v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA ON APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT [June 9, 1987] CWEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case the California Court of Appeal held that a land- owner who claims that his property has been "taken" by a land-use regulation may not recover damages for the time be- fore it is finally determined that the regulation constitutes a "taking" of his property. We disagree, and conclude that in these circumstances the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution would require compensa- tion for that period. In 1957, appellant First English Evangelical Lutheran Church purchased a 21-acre parcel of land in a canyon along the banks of the Middle Fork of Mill Creek in the Angeles . National Forest. The Middle Fork is the natural drainage channel for a watershed area owned by the National Forest Service. Twelve of the acres owned by the church are flat land, and contained a dining hall, two bunkhouses, a care- taker's lodge, an outdoor chapel, and a footbridge across the creek. The church operated on the site a campground, lmown as "Lutherglen," as a retreat center and a recreational area for handicapped children. In July 1977, a forest fire denuded the hills upstream from Lutherglen, destroying approximately 3,860 acres of the wa-