Milens of California, a California Corporation v. Richmond Redevelopment Agency

Richmond Redevelopment Agency appeals from the decision of the district court that it took Milens’ land by inverse condemnation and must pay just compensation.

We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I. The Facts.

In 1966 the City of Richmond approved the Richmond Redevelopment Agency’s redevelopment project 10-A (downtown Richmond). The plan divided property into two sorts — that which was to be acquired by the Agency and that which was to remain in the hands of owners. The plaintiff, Milens of California, owned a parcel of the second sort at 916 Macdonald Avenue, where it operated a jewelry store. By the end of 1969, the Agency has purchased over eighty percent of the lands that it was to acquire under the plan. In that year Milens bought the empty parcel next door at 912 Macdo-nald Avenue and used it for storage and additional sales space. On December 23, 1969, the Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew further funding for the project, which came to a halt, and in 1978 Milens moved to a nearby shopping center.

In 1973 Milens brought this action under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 , complaining that as a result of Agency actions the utility and marketability of its…