Suitum v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 520 U.S. 725, 18 (1997)

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742

SUITUM v. TAHOE REGIONAL PLANNING AGENCY

Opinion of the Court

selling price (assuming, of course, that the sale were made in good faith and at arm's length). But similar determinations of market value are routinely made in judicial proceedings without the benefit of a market transaction in the subject property. See, e. g., United States v. 819.98 Acres of Land, More or Less, Located in Wasatch and Summit Counties, 78 F. 3d 1468, 1469-1470 (CA10 1996) (upholding valuation of condemned land based on expert testimony relating to comparable sales and discounted cash flow); United States v. L. E. Cooke Co., 991 F. 2d 336, 338-339 (CA6 1993) (same with respect to valuation of mineral rights leases); see also 5 J. Sackman, Nichols' Law of Eminent Domain § 23-01, p. 23-6 (rev. 3d ed. 1997) ("[I]t is well established that the value of . . . land taken or injured by the exercise of the power of eminent domain may be shown by opinion evidence"); see generally 4 id., § 12.02 (discussing establishment of market value of condemned land). While it is true that market value may be hard to calculate without a regular trade in TDR's, if Suitum is ready to proceed in spite of this difficulty, ripeness doctrine does not block her. In fact, the reason for the agency's objection is probably a concern that without much market experience in sales of TDR's, their market values will get low estimates. But this is simply one of the risks of regulatory pioneering, and the pioneer here is the agency, not Suitum.

III

Finally, the agency argues (for the first time, before this Court) that Suitum's claim is unripe under the "fitness for review" requirement of Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U. S. 136 (1967). Abbott Laboratories arose on a petition under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U. S. C. §§ 701-704 (1964 ed., Supp. II), by a group of drug manufacturers seeking review of a labeling regulation promulgated by the Commissioner of Food and Drugs (FDA) but not yet the subject of any enforcement action against the manufacturers. The petitioners claimed that the FDA lacked statu-

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