Multnomah County v. Howell

Plaintiff Multnomah County brought suit to enjoin defendant from conducting rock-quarrying operations on his land which lies along the Sandy River gorge east of Troutdale. The land is zoned F-2, agricultural-residential, where rock quarrying is prohibited. After lengthy interlocutory proceedings extending over more than a year, the case was tried and the court entered a decree declaring that as applied to a portion of defendant’s land the county’s zoning ordinance amounted to “a taking or a confiscation without just compensation,” and was therefore invalid. Plaintiff appeals.

In early 1958…