Assigned to GOV & JUD FOR
COMMITTEE
Assigned to GOV & JUD FOR
COMMITTEE
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Third Legislature, Second Regular Session
private property rights; limitation
Purpose
Adds a tolling period for the statute of limitations on a claim for just compensation based on diminution of private property value. Contains requirements for enactment for initiatives and referendums (Proposition 105).
Background
Proposition 207, known as the Private Property Rights Protection Act, was approved by Arizona voters in 2006. Proposition 207 set forth the rights of a property owner when the state or a local government exercises the power of eminent domain. Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property for public use.
Statute provides that a property owner is entitled to just compensation from the state or a political subdivision if the existing rights to use, divide, sell or possess private real property are reduced by the enactment or applicability of any land use law enacted after the date the property is transferred to the owner and such action reduces the fair market value of the property (A.R.S. § 12-1134).
Just compensation, for purposes of an action for diminution in value, means the sum of money that is equal to the reduction in fair market value of the property resulting from the enactment of the land use law as of the date of enactment of the land use law. Fair market value means the most likely price estimated in terms of money that the land would bring if exposed for sale in the open market, with reasonable time allowed in which to find a purchaser, buying with knowledge of all the uses and purposes to which it is adapted and for which it is capable (A.R.S. § 12-1136).
If a land use law continues to apply to private real property more than 90 days after the owner of the property makes a written demand in a specific amount for just compensation to the state or political subdivision that enacted the land use law, the owner has a cause of action for just compensation. An action for just compensation based on diminution in value must be made within three years of the effective date of the land use law or of the first date the reduction of the existing rights to use, divide, sell or possess property applies to the owner’s parcel (A.R.S. § 12-1134).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Tolls the statute of limitations of a claim for just compensation when a property owner makes a written demand for just compensation for the lesser of 90 days or the length of time that it takes for the entity that enacted the land use law to deny the written demand.
2. Requires for enactment the affirmative vote of a least three-fourths of the members of each house of the Legislature (Proposition 105).
3. Makes technical changes.
4. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 5, 2018
JO/lat