Cite as: 512 U. S. 374 (1994)
Stevens, J., dissenting
clude from an evaluation of the benefit to be derived from the permit to enlarge the store and the parking lot.
The Court's assurances that its "rough proportionality" test leaves ample room for cities to pursue the "commendable task of land use planning," ante, at 396—even twice avowing that "[n]o precise mathematical calculation is required," ante, at 391, 395—are wanting given the result that test compels here. Under the Court's approach, a city must not only "quantify its findings," ante, at 395, and make "individualized determination[s]" with respect to the nature and the extent of the relationship between the conditions and the impact, ante, at 391, 393, but also demonstrate "proportionality." The correct inquiry should instead concentrate on whether the required nexus is present and venture beyond considerations of a condition's nature or germaneness only if the developer establishes that a concededly germane condition is so grossly disproportionate to the proposed development's adverse effects that it manifests motives other than land use regulation on the part of the city.5 The heightened requirement the Court imposes on cities is even more unjustified when all the tools needed to resolve the questions presented by this case can be garnered from our existing case law.
III
Applying its new standard, the Court finds two defects in the city's case. First, while the record would adequately support a requirement that Dolan maintain the portion of the floodplain on her property as undeveloped open space, it does not support the additional requirement that the flood-plain be dedicated to the city. Ante, at 392-395. Second,
5 Dolan's attorney overstated the danger when he suggested at oral argument that without some requirement for proportionality, "[t]he City could have found that Mrs. Dolan's new store would have increased traffic by one additional vehicle trip per day [and] could have required her to dedicate 75, 95 percent of her land for a widening of Main Street." Tr. of Oral Arg. 52-53.
403
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