The San Francisco Chronicle
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Supreme Court to hear long-running Rhode Island wetlands case

October 10, 2000

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether a Rhode Island man who has tried to develop coastal marshland for 40 years was treated fairly.

Anthony Palazzolo has repeatedly applied for government approval to fill in 18 coastal acres in Westerly, R.I. He failed each time and eventually sued for about $3.1 million he said he could have reaped from building 74 houses on the land.

Palazzolo claims the repeated refusals amount to an unconstitutional government taking of his land without proper compensation. The state says the land is an important wetlands habitat and a buffer to pollution.

The complicated regulatory and court history of the dispute dates to 1959 and involves questions about when Palazzolo owned the property and whether he tried to disguise his true intentions to build houses on it.

Palazzolo sued in state court in 1988, seeking payment from the government for what he called an effective condemnation, or taking, of his property. Under the Constitution, the government may take private property, as it regularly does for such things as road construction, but it must pay the owner fairly.

The case is Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, 99-2047.