Poppleton Now Community Association, Inc. v. La Cite Development, LLC:Date Argued: January 28th, 2026; Docket Number: 25-1770

Case Summary:In the lower court, Poppleton Now Community Association, Inc. and six individual Poppleton residents sued La Cite Development, LLC, several related developer entities and their principal, current and former Baltimore City officials (including the Mayor, City Council, Housing Authority, and former Mayor Sheila Dixon), alleging that a 2006 Land Disposition and Development Agreement giving La Cité 13.8 acres in the Poppleton Urban Renewal Area—much of it to be assembled by eminent domain—was an unconstitutional taking and violated their equal protection and due process rights, as well as constituting private nuisance and unjust enrichment, because it indefinitely transferred valuable land in a historically Black neighborhood to a private developer, generated delays and blight, and involved later side payments of $260,000 and $550,000 to the developer when the City adjusted the project area and repurposed some parcels.The district court (D. Md., Case No. 1:24‑cv‑02420‑ABA) held that the individual plaintiffs and the association lacked Article III standing to bring the takings claim because none of them had property actually condemned, rejected their equal protection theory for failing to plausibly allege discriminatory animus or similarly situated comparators, and dismissed the federal due process and state‑law claims (including nuisance and unjust enrichment) for failure to state a claim, ultimately granting all defendants’ motions to dismiss and terminating the case.​Plaintiffs then appealed to the present court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, where the case is docketed as No. 25‑1770, Poppleton Now Community Association, Inc. v. La Cite Development, LLC, and the Fourth Circuit heard oral argument in the appeal on January 28, 2026