Kirby v. North Carolina Department of Transportation

NEWBY, Justice.

In this case we consider whether the use of the Map Act by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) resulted in a taking of certain property rights of plaintiffs without just compensation. Upon NCDOT’s recording of the highway corridor maps at issue here, the Map Act restricted plaintiffs’ fundamental rights to improve, develop, and subdivide their property for an unlimited period of time. These restraints, coupled with their indefinite nature, constitute a taking of plaintiffs’ elemental property rights by eminent domain. The extent to which plaintiffs maybe…