ABSTRACT
Negotiated rezoning approvals, where authorized by state statute or state court decisions, can be a useful and flexible tool for achieving legitimate governmental purposes. Problems could arise if the property were sold, because a purchaser of the property could object to the negotiated zoning and raise substantive due process and taking issues. Some nearby residential and commercial opponents of the developer's project bring suit to block the project and overturn the rezoning; they also seek to enjoin all similar negotiated rezonings. However, there is less likelihood that it would be raised in this case because the developer is satisfied with the rezoning he achieved through the negotiated development process. Cities that rezone a parcel as the culmination of a negotiation process should spell out precisely the range of public health, safety, and welfare benefits which the particular project, the rezoning and developer quid-pro-quos confer.
