Language in SB 18 should be changed to allow property owners to repurchase their property if the development of the property for the public use for which it is taken has not begun within five years or if the public use for which the property is taken is not in operation within 10 years of the taking.
Property Rights
Oakland fined this couple $915,000 for preventing fires. That’s 18 times the penalty for actual arson
Imagine buying a piece of property, being ordered by the government to clear it of fire hazards, and then being handed a near-million-dollar bill by that same government for doing exactly what it asked. It sounds like a dystopian satire of bureaucratic overreach, but for Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner, it is a harrowing legal...
August 19, 2026