OCTOBER TERM, 1996
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit
No. 96-243. Argued February 26, 1997—Decided May 27, 1997
Petitioner Suitum owns an undeveloped lot near Lake Tahoe. Respondent Tahoe Regional Planning Agency determined that the lot is ineligible for development under agency regulations, but that Suitum is entitled to receive certain allegedly valuable "Transferable Development Rights" (TDR's) that she can sell to other landowners with the agency's approval. Suitum did not seek those rights, but instead brought this action for compensation under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, claiming that the agency's determinations amounted to a regulatory taking of her property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The District Court held that her claim is not ripe for adjudication because she has not attempted to sell her TDR's, so that their specific values are unknown and the court could not realistically assess whether the agency's regulations have frustrated her reasonable expectations. The Ninth Circuit agreed and affirmed, reasoning, inter alia, that action on a TDR transfer application would be the requisite "final decision" by the agency regarding its regulations' application to Suitum's lot.
Held: Suitum's regulatory takings claim is ripe for adjudication.
Pp. 733-744. (a) Suitum must satisfy the prudential ripeness principle requiring that she receive a "final decision" from the agency regarding the application of its regulations to her property. Williamson County Regional Planning Comm'n v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U. S. 172, 186. Pp. 733-734. (b) The Ninth Circuit's rationale for holding Suitum's claim unripe— that she had failed to obtain a final and authoritative agency decision— is unsupported by this Court's precedents. See, e. g., Williamson County, supra, at 191, 193; MacDonald, Sommer & Frates v. Yolo County, 477 U. S. 340, 349. These precedents make two points clear about the finality requirement: it applies to decisions about how a takings plaintiff's particular parcel may be used, see, e. g., Williamson County, supra, at 191, and it responds to the high degree of discretion characteristically possessed by land-use boards in softening the strictures of the general regulations they administer, see, e. g., MacDonald, supra, at 350. Suitum's claim satisfies the demand for finality. It is
725
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