Premium
Property Owners Need Permission for Nonwetlands Construction
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.1991.tb07239.x
Subject(s) - commission , certificate , business , acre , real property , law , permission , property (philosophy) , easement , wetland , property rights , political science , environmental science , computer science , philosophy , epistemology , algorithm , agroforestry , ecology , biology
Property owners owned a 22‐acre parcel of land in the town of Fairfield, Conn. About half the parcel was designated as wetlands. In June 1987, the town conservation commission adopted a regulation regarding construction on land that was partly within designated inland wetlands and watercourses. Before the owner could build on the nonwetlands portion of the parcel, he or she must obtain a “certificate of wetlands conformance” from the commission. The owners challenged both the commission's authority to enact the regulation and the ordinance's validity, because they asserted it denied them equal protection of the law. The trial court ruled against them, as did the appellate court.