William C. Haas & Co., Inc. v. City and County of San Francisco, California

William C. Haas & Co., Inc. (“Haas”) brought this diversity action against the City and County of San Francisco (“City”) claiming that the City’s rezoning of its property and the imposition of other land use restrictions so far diminished the value of its property as to constitute a taking for which it is entitled to just compensation protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the City, and Haas appeals. We uphold the district court because we conclude that (1) the land use restrictions imposed by the City upon Haas’ property were not unconstitutional as applied to that property, and (2) the impairment of the economic value of the property, although substantial, was not sufficient to give rise to a constitutional claim to just compensation.

This controversy has a long history, punctuated by years of litigation before administrative agencies, and federal and state courts. On June 28, 1971, Haas entered a land purchase agreement to buy a large parcel of unimproved land in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. The agreement was conditioned upon Haas’ procurement of a valid site permit from the requisite city agency. When…