Regulatory Taking Doctrine in Washington: Now You See It, Now You Don't

Within a recent two-month period, the Washington Supreme Court issued decisions in two major regulatory taking cases, Orion Corporation v. State, and Allingham v. City of Seattle. In both cases, land use regulations were challenged on the basis of the taking clauses of the federal and state constitutions. This Article analyzes and critically assesses Orion's ambitious doctrinal initiative in light of the Allingham enigma and charts a tentative course toward more coherent regulatory taking doctrine. A pervasive and hopeful theme of the Article is that a latent, largely unarticulated or misstated doctrine exists, just waiting for explicit judicial recognition, that would consistently explain, and even predict, most of the regulatory taking decisions.