The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition to hear a developer’s case against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection over a permit denial for a beachfront parcel. The case relates to a DEP denial of a final permit for a project to build 17 luxury townhouse units on an oceanfront site. After the DEP’s decision, the developer lost the property through foreclosure, and a principal at the firm ended up with a roughly $10 million personal judgment, which prompted the firm to sue the DEP and claim the denial was a regulatory taking. The company won at the trial court level, but the Fourth District Court of Appeal last year held the case was in part “unripe” because the developer could have considered an alternative development plan. The Florida Supreme Court declined to revive the decision in March.
