When the Minneapolis City Council adopted its inclusionary zoning ordinance, together with its Unified Housing Policy, in late 2018 there was optimism that the ordinance would result in the creation of much needed affordable housing in the city.  The ordinance mandates a minimum percentage of 10-20 percent of units within multifamily buildings be affordable where…

The Minnesota Legislature passed sweeping new amendments to statutes which create criminal penalties for the failure to pay wages and impose requirements for employers (including contractors) to document the terms of employment with their employees.  The new amendments took effect July 1, 2019.  Then, on August 8, Minneapolis passed an ordinance, essentially piggybacking on the…

The fact that Minnesota, and especially the metropolitan region of St. Paul/Minneapolis, is experiencing a severe affordable housing crisis is not disputed.  The Metropolitan Council recently released data documenting that the metro region of Minnesota is growing substantially but that the supply of new housing, affordable across a broad range of housing types, is lagging. …

We frequently get asked about how an assessment will change after an acquisition at a price higher than the assessed value. The answer of course is, it depends.

Assessors use sales ratio studies for the review and equalization of values. A sales ratio shows the relationship between the assessors Estimated Market Value (EMV) and the…

Employers have long disliked labor unions’ use of inflatable rats, large balloon cats, mock funerals and other types of dramatic protests mounted when a labor union wants to exert pressure on a company to cease doing business with the employer with whom the union has a dispute.  The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) expressly prohibits…

Parties to public and private construction contracts entered into after August 1, 2019 are subject to new statutory requirements and limitations regarding the withholding and release of retainage, that portion of earned contract funds withheld by the owner from the contractor pending completion of the project.  It is important that owners, prime contractors, and subcontractors…

One of the most consequential decisions of the recently concluded term of the U.S. Supreme Court involves the reversal of a 30-year precedent and reinstatement of a landowner’s right to seek redress in federal court for an alleged taking of property without just compensation.  The 5-4 majority decision in Knick v. Township of Scott, PA…

Finding the Future: Innovations in Land Use and Sustainability

Picture the future.  Does it include automated vehicles? Will we fly from place to place in personal pods like in the sci-fi movies we have watched?  What else does the future hold and who will shape it?  Land planners predict the future will be shaped…

Inverse condemnation is a potentially powerful kind of litigation ju jitsu move that property owners can use in certain situations to call the government to account when it damages their property by an official act or omission. Most everyone has some familiarity with eminent domain, also known as condemnation or a governmental taking. Where private…

When policymakers debate new regulatory policies, including those relating to housing, invariably someone will identify that such regulations come at a price, oftentimes a high price.  This usually triggers the response that complying with the regulations will be the “greedy” developer/builder’s problem and they can simply take it out of their profits.  It’s a nice,…