Chad Trausch just wanted to build a small addition to his Miami home. With a baby on the way, he and his wife were making space for her parents to move in and help with child care. But when he submitted the plans, the city hit him with a condition he never expected: If he wanted a permit to build in the backyard, he’d first need to grant the public the right to use half his front yard.
The city requested that Trausch record a deed dedicating a 10-by-50-foot strip of his property for public use at his own expense. Such a condition would have allowed the city to treat the land as its own for sidewalks, street widening, or utilities, without paying him for it.
It wasn’t a case of eminent domain: There was no compensation, no formal taking. Just a response to a standard permit application…